


This World Was Ours

by Seliphra



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Autistic Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Canon-Typical Violence, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gore, Graphic Description, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Lance (Voltron) is a Dork, M/M, NSFW, Original Character Death(s), Pining Keith (Voltron), Sex, Zombies, broganes, everyone is disabled
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2018-09-07 17:30:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8809675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seliphra/pseuds/Seliphra
Summary: Something has happened that now causes people to eat other people. Lance was separated from his friends and family, entirely alone for longer than he would have liked, until a cute stranger with a sword saves his life. At least then he's not alone, but he needs to find his family, and he only hopes the rag-tag group of survivors can help him find them. Not to mention help him survive.





	1. Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Who's up for a Voltron Zombie AU? All of us, I hope! Anyways, this first chapter is a little short, but the next chapter will be longer too. 
> 
> Please leave a review or kudo's if you enjoy it, I haven't written anything in a few years now, so hopefully this isn't terrible!

Lance frowned quietly as he stared into the remnants of the fire in front of him, jumping at every noise made, every slight shuffle or grunt from outside. He longed for the heat and light of a fire but fire was too dangerous right now. He gently and as quietly as he could kicked out the last of the smouldering embers of the fire now, shivering a little bit as he quietly laid down, too neurotic to sleep. Every sound startled him and made his pulse race, and there was no safe place to rest either. This was as good as it got... a chain link fence, darkness, and a bunch of sheets protected him from the view of those... those things outside the fence, either in the storage area of an old restaurant, or in the restaurant itself. Probably a dozen on the streets too. He had to go back out there eventually, but he didn't like the idea of it. He might not be able to come back here, and this spot, though not safe, was certainly better than most places.

His last thought before he grew too tired to remain awake any longer was of his family. He was worried about them, and wracked with guilt over not knowing... they had to be okay though. They were as tough as he was! And yet, worry ate him alive from the inside. They were separated three weeks ago, during an attack on the place they had been sleeping. Lance had thought they were right behind him... but they weren't, and it had been too dangerous to go back right away. By the time he'd been able to check a week later, there was nothing there. Ah... so tired... finally sleep did claim him.

* * *

When he woke he could hear nothing at all. No birds, but that was normal now. How did the world come to this anyways? It took all of a week for the whole world to crumble, to fall to absolute ruin... and it had been a month since then. A month of barely surviving, barely making it to the next day... and whatever those things were, they sure as shit weren't humans. Not any more, anyways. Lance was quiet as he got up, stretching the kinks out of his back and finding what was left of his food in the backpack he carried. He chewed as quietly as possibly on some beef jerky and pulled his jacket on and then his pack before carefully looking outside. He lifted the sheet draped over the fence with trembling fingers, holding his breath as he did and looking around.

Lance dropped the sheet and covered his mouth, swallowing to try and keep his fear in check before lifting it up again. It hadn't moved... it was just standing there, silent as could be, in the sunlight that streamed in through the broken window pane of the storage facility. Just one... just one... it was just one... he kept repeating that thought inside his head as he prepped himself for the sprint to the door. Oh, if there was a God, he prayed to it now that there was nothing on the other side of that door. A rat squeaked, causing the thing to shift it's focus and shamble towards it. Opposite direction of Lance too, which he was grateful for. He moved now, opening the fence silently, then closing it again -just in case he was able to come back here after all.

He moved as absolutely quietly as he could, not taking his eyes off the thing, and it didn't seem too interested in him either... until he stepped on some of that broken glass with an unfortunately loud CRUNCH. It spun, and when it laid eyes on him it let out one of those raspy, terrifying growls that they all made and began lunging for him.

Lance turned, sprinting for the door which waved open. Two more! Damn it! He leaped over the counter and dodged between the booths before leaping through the broken front window before taking off, full tilt down the street. His heart raced as he glanced behind himself. Four in the street, but not fast ones, and the three from the McDonald's he'd sheltered in overnight, though those three were hung up with trying to get back out of the former fast-food joint. He ducked down an alleyway and then slowed to a stop, peeking out to see if there were more... none down this street it seemed. He moved quickly, but no longer running. An urban street, houses, all abandoned but the lawns still looked pretty good. He was glad for the warmth of this season, but winter he was already worrying about too. How was he supposed to survive both those things and the freezing cold of winter? Maybe he'd be dead by then...

He didn't know this area too well, but he did know he needed food. Maybe those houses were okay, but he wasn't sure he should risk it either. Looked like there was a convenience store down the street too, so he made his way there now. The lights were still on, but the windows were all smashed in, by people or the things he wasn't sure yet. He looked around and didn't see any for now, so he silently slipped inside and hoped like hell there were none in here... and that the other ones didn't follow him in. Some stuff had been taken, but he did score some chocolate bars, and beef jerky, some peanuts... and water! Bottled water! The faucets still worked well enough, but houses were death traps in many respects too.

He loaded up what he could, as quiet as he could, but when he opened the cooler and reached for water, something moving back there caught his attention. Oh shit... He slid backwards and hit the shelf behind him and a hand reached through one of the empty slots. The skin was mottled, grayish and white, pealing in a few parts, and black near the finger tips and nails. The arm pushed through at the same time the horrifying, raspy-sounding growl left it, and though Lance couldn't see its face, he knew it's lips were pulling into a sneer, it's teeth gnashing to try and bite him.

It seemed trapped there so he looked around again before carefully opening again and removing four large bottles of water, his eyes on the hand so he could keep out of the way. The bite made you one of them, but he wasn't sure about scratches. No way he was risking it though. Lance put the pack on his back again and peeked around the shelves and then... oh shit. OH SHIT! There were five or six of them out there, and Lance had no real escape route. He only saw them for a second but they seemed interested in the shop... the one in the cooler... it was making too much noise, and he swallowed, his heart racing again.

Lance couldn't shut the thing in the cooler up, and he was too scared to move now. He had to figure something out though, or he was definitely dead now, and Lance definitely did not want to be dead. Okay, maybe if he was really fast, he could get away? Or if he ran over there... behind the cash registers, and then drew their attention? He might be able to bolt around them and out the window if he was lucky. Just as Lance got ready to move he heard a very odd sound. A wet one, like meat being cut, and then thumps of something hitting the pavement. Then he heard footsteps, the crunch of glass beneath someones -or somethings- feet, and just as Lance made to bolt someone turned the corner, sword in hand.

"Ah!" He yelped as a sword got pressed to his throat, his eyes widening in shock. The guy holding the sword had dark, purplish eyes and black hair... Japanese from what Lance could tell. And definitely not rotting. Actually, this guy was pretty cute too, were they not in the midst of the apocalypse, Lance might flirt with him. This guy was so fast with that thing too! It was no surprise why he was still alive with that speed, and probable skill. It took the stranger a moment or two too, but the sword lowered now and then went back into it's sheath.

"You're alive huh?" The cute stranger asked, his voice smooth as silk to Lance's ears, and the first voice that Lance had heard that wasn't his own in almost three weeks now. It was so nice to hear an actual human voice that Lance could barely keep it together. An answer! Right! He needed to answer! He nodded, his throat not working properly it seemed. Admittedly he never thought 'are you alive' would be a question directed at him.

"Good... come with me then."


	2. Pharmacy Raid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance doesn't want to be alone anymore, even if it means raiding a pharmacy in the middle of the apocalypse with a total stranger. At least it's a cute stranger with a really cool sword.

"Who are you?" Lance asked for the third time as he followed Sword Guy down the street. He earned a glare for that and a roll of those pretty, purplish eyes, but Lance needed to know. They hadn't gone far yet. Sword Guy had grabbed more food and water, and he killed the thing in the cooler too, which had made Lance flinch a little in disgust. His own voice was still a little crackly, having gone unused for three weeks now, since he got separated from his family.

"Come on man, I don't even know who you are, or why I should follow you to... to wherever it is you're taking me. I can't at least get your name?" ' _Cute, but grumpy_ ' Lance thought to himself, pouting a little bit. Not to mention a mullet seemed to be coming in too, ' _How eighties._ '

"Keith. Keith Kogane. Now shut up and trust me okay? They're attracted to sound, so stay quiet," Keith said, his voice soft, so the things would hopefully not overhear them. Lance scowled a little bit, but he stuck close anyways. His survival chances were better with Keith than without him. Keith had a sword and apparently knew how to use it too, and Lance, well. Lance was a fast sprinter and he was flexible and could probably fight okay. Against humans at any rate. Against these things though, he'd rather just run like hell and hope they didn't keep up.

"Where are we going?" Lance hissed now and then swallowed at the sight of a small strip mall. It was the kind most suburbs had, with a liquor store, a small shopping centre, a bar, hell, there was even a pizza place! Though Lance suspected they probably didn't have any pizza in there now.

"There's a pharmacy in there, now shut up and come on. Or don't, I don't actually care," Keith grumbled quietly, pulling out some binoculars to look at what he had to handle outside the stores. There were at least twenty of them shambling around the parking lot, shambling around or standing still. They didn't look dangerous when they were like this. It didn't seem like they could or would kill you in half a heart beat if you got too close to them. Lance wished he didn't know the truth, then maybe he wouldn't feel so afraid he might puke.

"You gonna go in there? For... for drugs?" Lance asked, just to clarify. He wasn't sure a junkie was the best person to team up with for the apocalypse but then again maybe they just needed some advil?

"I'm not going because I want to, believe me. But we're gonna need a lot of medicine now that the world's ended," Keith grumbled now, rolling his eyes, "if you don't wanna come, then don't. You'll just be in the way anyways," Keith wasn't all that polite it seemed, but Lance supposed the end of days did forgive that one. For now, at any rate.

"Fine, fine, I'm coming, but only if we get an epipen while we're in there," He agreed. Lance supposed they should grab another bag while they were there. Shopping bags were in those places right?

"A...? Fine, whatever. Just stay close and keep quiet," Keith started moving then, sword drawn as he did, and staying low to the ground. Lance followed close, his eyes still on Keith, or they were until they got close. Lance had always gotten distracted easily, but lately that seemed to come in handy more than anything, as a small movement drew his attention this time and he reached out to grab Keith's arm in response to it. Keith turned to glare at him, but the expression Lance wore gave him pause, and Lance pointed one finger, trembling slightly, at what had drawn his gaze.

It was one of the things, staring right at them as it sprinted full tilt down the road, it's mouth open already as it did. It was enormous too, nearing six and a half feet, it's skin mottled grey, but peeled back on the cheeks and forearms, likely peeled away while trying to catch a person. It made no raspy snarl at them, it's throat torn out by something or someone that had encountered it already. Keith stood, and motioned for Lance to move, which he did. This drew it's attention though causing it to focus on Lance, course veering right for him. He felt his pulse in his head as he tried to evade it, but fell on his ass instead, so afraid he thought his head might explode, and Lance raised an arm to try to defend himself from it.

For as fast as the thing was though, Keith was fast too, moving towards it, sword raised. With it distracted by Lance, Keith was able to sever one of it's legs and an arm in two fast movements. The thing dropped, and another jab from the sword caused it to stop moving, though Lance's pulse was still way above what it should be, and embarrassingly enough he felt tears in his eyes. At least he hadn't peed himself, he supposed, but he didn't understand how Keith could be this cool about the things. Lance had never felt as helpless as he had in the past month since this whole fiasco began.

Keith gave the sword a flick, trying to get the blackened, rotting blood of his sword, but it didn't do much to help. He'd have to clean it properly later. He walked the few steps to Lance and reached one hand out to help him stand up again, making Lance's cheeks heat with further embarrassment. Lance took the offered hand anyways, wiping his cheeks to get rid of the tears that left dark streaks there.

Keith motioned silently to keep going and Lance could barely believe that they were still going in after the sprinter had nearly gotten them. Or maybe it hadn't, and Lance's terror was simply putting the thought in his head. He was riding way too much adrenaline though now, as a result, and he wished this stranger could at least say something, or sweat, or look scared! If Keith looked scared, Lance would feel a little bit better about feeling so afraid all the time lately.

They drew closer still though, much as Lance didn't want to, and Keith motioned to him to move around the back of the strip mall. The alleyway had two. Definitely a more manageable number than the twenty or so, and there was a way up to the roof, not that it would be easy. Keith made to charge, but Lance reached out instinctively. On the roof they would have time to think if they could pull themselves up from there. From here, the sound of fighting would draw the parking lot things into the alleyway, which was more trouble than they needed. Keith might be good with that sword of his, but there was no way he could take a small horde like that on without difficulty at least and he was beginning to look a little worse for wear, now that Lance had a chance to actually look.

Lance pointed to the two things in the alleyway, neither of which had noticed them yet, then at the rocks strewn about. He made a throwing motion, then with two fingers mimed walking to the dumpsters, a jump, and tried to mime them climbing on the roof. Keith stared at him with a completely blank expression, not understanding any of it. Damn. Keith was looking now though, and then pointed at the rocks and gave a thumbs up, picking one up and peeking out to see where the things were.

Keith had a look of deep concentration before he threw the rock in a high arch, and far to the other side. Both of the things perked up, heads facing the sound and then beginning to wander towards it and out towards the parking lot. Silently they hurried now to the dumpster, Lance right behind Keith. He was a little taller than Keith too, Lance noticed as he pulled himself up onto the roof. Keith could not quite reach it seemed which made Lance feel a little bit better about being so useless until now. Lance reached down and helped pull Keith up onto the roof, feeling a bit smug about Keith needing his help this time.

They moved along the top of the store to the roof access door. The air conditioning and heating units were all on the roof, so this was the safest way into the store, Lance hoped. Keith had his sword out anyways, but he would pray to whatever was listening that there was not a single cursed one of those things inside. The lights were still on, which help a little for Lance at least, and Keith lead the way, down the stairs. They came out into a back room, one the customers were never supposed to see, and a couple of the lights were beginning to flicker, but most likely due to not being changed in a month. More than that, come to think of it.

From what Lance could hear, there were some out in the aisles, but Keith stuck to the walls for now and Lance stuck to Keith. Why was he doing this? Why didn't he just stay on the roof tops or say 'Thanks but no thanks' when Keith said 'come with me' to him? He knew why. He would take even this guy who was crazy enough to break into a pharmacy full of those undead -or perhaps truly dead- things during the apocalypse over the alternative. Another night of pulse racing fear and not knowing if he would wake up because he was done sleeping, or because he was being eaten alive. Another night of deafening silence and the all-encompassing fear that came with no noise at all, not even insects in the grass. Another night of the silence only being broken up by those horrifying rasping gasps as those things shuffled around in the dark.

Keith was moving a lot slower now, Lance noticed, and he did _not_ look good. Maybe he really was an addict? Keith took down the thing that was near the pharmacy before hopping the counter and heading into the shelves to look for something specific. Lance took the chance to grab what he could see from the shelves. Advil, nyquil, gravol, midol... anything that might come in handy, whether it be for them, or to trade with any other survivors they ran into. The sound of one of those things startled him behind the counter and back to where Keith was.

"Dude, come on, just grab whatever and let's go," Lance hissed under his breath at Keith. Was he reading all the labels? Lance did find the EpiPen packs easy enough, right near where Keith was looking too, so he had what he needed just in case. Well, for a year anyways, otherwise he had to hope he didn't run into any bees.

"I _can't_ just grab whatever, and I kind of need... this one, _thank fuck!_ " He whispered, pulling out a grey cylinder with a red cap. He knelt down now and grabbed something out of his backpack along with what looked like a strip of paper. Keith pressed it to his finger. ' _Ouch, is that blood?!_ ' Lance thought as he watched Keith curiously, reading the label on the one Keith seemed to want so badly too. _Humalog 100U/ml Kwikpen_ it red in red letters on the white box beside the pen.

Keith looked annoyed by what the meter said too when it beeped -too loudly for Lance's liking- at him and he grabbed the grey cylinder again. He fiddled with it for a second before lifting his shirt and injecting himself with it on the abdomen, which made Lance wince a little bit reflexively. He hated needles, and didn't see how anyone could want one as much as Keith seemed to want that one, though he figured it was probably important. Keith patted the spot next to him and made a drinking motion so Lance sat down and cracked a bottle open for him after digging one out of his bag.

"Thanks," Keith whispered, before digging a list out, along with a fabric draw-string bag, "look for everything on this list. Take as much of it as you can," He whispered, and Lance huffed softly but he did as he was told too. Being on high alert like this made it especially easy to get distracted at least, so he figured he'd notice anything coming. For now, he tried to keep his attention on what he needed to look for.

More of that _Humalog_ stuff, Lance grabbed the pens and the cartridges and the vials too, but now he read it more closely too. Insulin. So Keith was diabetic then? That kind of explained that then, and Lance secretly felt like an ass for assuming more negatively about him now. _Levemir_ was the other one, and it had a nice turquoise colour, though Lance wasn't sure why Keith needed two kinds. Then again he wasn't well versed on insulin in general. What else, _Qvar,_ he grabbed whatever he found there too, and _Ventolin_ , nitroglycerine spray, and _Effexor (37.5)_. Odd combo. Yhey couldn't all be for Keith right? No way. He remembered his best friend took nitro too, and Lance had a pang of guilt and sadness at the thought of Hunk. He didn't know if he was okay either.

Lance was looking left and right and through shelves every few seconds too, his head apparently on a swivel-stick with every tiny sound he heard, everything he thought he saw out of the corner of his eye. He also grabbed a few other things from back there, not paying much attention to what. Something caught his attention and this time he dropped to the floor when he saw one of those things shuffling around too close. He moved as slowly and quietly as he could with the bag full of stuff but he caught it's attention anyways and he swallowed hard as it's head moved from side to side, watching him as it shuffled closer, stopped by the counter. It reached out at him now, and Lance's eyes fixated on it, and he couldn't help but notice every detail of it.

It was a woman, at one time. Judging by the whiteness of her hair she was probably older when she succumbed to the same plague that claimed almost everyone, though even dead, her hair held on to the tight curls it once grew in, though now it had thinned in her death. Her lips were gone now, revealing her blackening gums and mottled grey tongue and teeth. Her eyes were whitened too, the pupils tiny dots in icy grey, like they all had. Her skin was mottled too, but hints of the beautiful dark brown skin still remained, even with the flesh underneath the same ugly grey as her mouth was now, and Lance couldn't help picturing what she would have been in life... she must have been really beautiful, he decided, but he was distracted by Keith who moved in now. One thrust of his sword was all it took to silence the rasping she gave off and he listened silently for a minute before motioning to Lance and grabbing his bag. Time to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for the record, everyone in this fic will also have a disability of some kind, because I am a little tired of so many zombie/apocalypse stories with no one who's disabled being allowed to survive. We're going to meet a few more friends in the next chapter!


	3. Safety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance leave the pharmacy and go to a relatively safe spot. Lance meets someone he didn't expect when they do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the people who were worried about the zombie Keith killed at the end of chapter two, no, it was NOT Allura!

The journey to the stairwell was pulse racing, a few of the things hearing them as they tried to move silently and beginning to give chase. Keith tugged him inside the employee room and closed the door and motioned for him to stay down for now. Lance didn't really understand why they couldn't just run for it, they could outpace them to the roof after all, and close the door, and he looked at Keith to scowl in protest, before noticing Keith still looked pale. He was pulling out the monitor again, and took another swig of the half finished bottle of water while he pricked his finger again. Lance made a face at that again, which Keith ignored, more interested in the number on the screen, which Lance didn't understand. It was lower than the other one he'd seen, though considering Keith's expression, not lower enough.

The beep it had sounded echoed a little in the room though, and even Keith flinched at the sound of it, especially when a steady _THUD. THUD. THUD._ sound came at the door afterwards. Keith glared and braced himself against the door and Lance did the same. One of the things came into view at the window into the room too, and pressed it's face to the glass, apparently trying to chew it's way through with its greyish black teeth. Lance couldn't help it again, picturing what this man must have once looked like. No hair anymore, so Lance imagined brown hair, short in length. His eyes were probably once a hazelnut brown, Lance decided, though they were the same ugly, ice-grey all the things had. Lance decided this thing used to have a bright smile too, though he was a bit short and stocky- a loud _THUD_ from the thing he was imagining on the glass snapped him out of it though.

“We-we shouldn't have come in here,” Lance whimpered softly, and Keith glared at him for it. “What!? They already know we're in here, more of them are gonna come. Sure these three can't break it down, but how the hell do we get out of here until then?” He hissed in response and Keith sighed softly.

“No choice. Can't fight yet. Blood sugar is still too high, and my insulin takes a while to peak. Safer than the pharmacy, considering that elderly Biter nearly made it in after you. You're lucky, you know. She probably had osteoporosis or something, she was slow,” Keith muttered back with a sigh, taking another sip before offering some to Lance who took the bottle with a frown, and took a sip.

“So like, why didn't you come here a week ago if you were that desperate?” Lance asked softly. He wouldn't have left it so long if he was in Keith's shoes. _'Biters, huh?'_ Lance thought to himself too, supposing that made more sense than 'things'.

“I tried. Couldn't make my way inside,” Keith said softly, taking the bottle back from Lance and drinking more. “And anyways, I know the others will need their med's pretty soon too, some of them need them, and one, well, he can go off, but not cold turkey,” Keith scowled as a fourth one appeared and began adding to the thudding on the door and windows. Lance could hear them rasping too, at their trapped prey.

“Won't help much if we both die in here,” Lance sighed, before frowning a little. “There's more of your group then? How-how many?” He was a little bit hopeful maybe. Being on his own was harder than he could have imagined before he had been left alone.

“Four, including me. You should come with me you know. With us, I mean. It's better than being alone right?” Keith asked. Anyways, their survival chances increased in a group, even Lance knew that and he nodded. Anything was better than another night so alone that he could suffocate on it.

“I um, that sounds nice. You have a safe spot?” Lance asked, looking and feeling almost hopeful. Almost, if it weren't for the steady drum beat on the windows and glass, keeping tempo with his building anxiety. _THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD._ Like a horrible heart beat, reminding him that he might not even live to see this group. _'Shut up. Just be quiet.'_ He wanted to yell at the sound, at the things making it.

“I don't think anywhere is safe any more,” Keith said softly, and Lance was a bit surprised by how soft his expression was then. Sad, angry, maybe defeated? He wasn't an easy read for Lance, but he wasn't impossible either, whenever his guard flickered a little. It seemed like that was a rare occurrence though, something that Keith tried to avoid at all costs if he could.

“I guess not huh? This sucks. How many are out there now, do you think?” Lance asked, shivering a little, scowling at the window now. They were multiplying, it seemed, and it annoyed him a lot. He had stopped imagining what they once looked like now, too many, and he kept switching which one he was picturing with his over-active imagination. They were so distracting!

“Looks like eight of them now,” Keith frowned. The tempo was increasing too and getting more frantic as they tried to chew through the glass to reach them. “They aren't frenzied up though, they probably won't get in...”

“Yeah, but we still gotta get _out_ right?” Lance reminded, his tone mildly annoyed by the utter lack of concern Keith seemed to have with their current situation. They were probably already dead, and just had yet to go through with the act of actually _dying_ yet.

“We will, I just gotta recover a little... five more minutes should be fine,” Keith said, his tone unconcerned, and apparently he had either not picked up on Lance's annoyance at all, or he didn't care. That annoyed Lance even more. This guy just had to be so _cool_ and _unfazed_ by the monstrosities that still thudded all too loudly against the glass and door. Keith dug through his bag now, pulling out a pink hair elastic and pulling his hair back, tying it up.

“Pink?” Lance tried to tease, smirking a little bit at Keith, but he didn't seem all that concerned with Lance's mocking. Lance teased to avoid thinking about Katie, his other best friend. He didn't know how she was either... she was younger than he was, but she was a genius, skipped up a few years and in his and Hunk's class. They hung out with her a lot, but he didn't know if she was alive either now. She always wore pink elastics though in her hair. Always. Lance couldn't help remembering how tiny she was too, and how she couldn't run without causing an asthma attack, how she coughed and hacked and gasped for air the one time he'd actually seen her run... how could she run from these things? How could she have survived when she'd have to run from these things... when she couldn't even run? The thought saddened him a lot more than he'd ever admit to her, if he ever saw her again.

“It's the apocalypse, I'm not that picky. Anyways, I'm borrowing it,” Keith said, stretching a little bit now and grabbing the bag, pulling it onto his back again. Lance couldn't help looking at that jawline Keith had. Or the neck, or... he had better stop getting distracted by that cute face. Especially cute with that hair up, really, damn Keith and how damn good he looked! No one had the right to look that hot during the end of the world!

“You got the medicine? Ready to run?” Keith asked, his expression setting harder as he got ready to fight. Lance pulled the backpack on, then grabbed the other cloth one, strapping it to his front since he didn't want to risk breaking any of the medicine inside between his back and his backpack.

“Not really, no, but let's do this,” Lance sighed and Keith stood up. Lance stood up too, and moved behind him, eyes on the door as Keith moved slowly forward, opening the door for the things and jumping backwards. His sword flew into action as they tumbled in. Two with bits of dark hair still on their scalps, and he cut them both down with a single swing before pressing forwards. Once he made it to the hallway Lance moved behind him and started running for the door. Keith relented the fight and turned, sprinting after Lance as fast as he could.

Left, up the stairs, Lance hit the door hard and went flying out of it, followed by Keith who slammed the door behind them and kept going for the spot they had climbed up on. Lance was there too, as the door to the roof clanked open, and the things poured out, aiming for them. Keith hopped down, the dumpster clanging far too loudly, and Lance didn't hesitate jumping after him, then to the ground. _Damn_ Keith could run though! Keith did skid to a stop to check the corners and then sprinted to the right so Lance moved after him without bothering to check. He was lucky nothing was there, but the ones from the alley were definitely after them, and so were the ones from the roof, apparently having no qualms about jumping off the roof onto gravel.

It was a right, a left, another right, and a fence hopped before Keith finally stopped, breathing heavily, and Lance had to lay down on the grass in what used to be someone's back yard to catch his breath too. He felt almost dizzy as he stared into the perfectly blue sky, watching the wisps of stark white cloud against it. It seemed almost impossible, how blue the sky was. Impossibly blue, with all the horror that existed on this miserable planet, and the sky could still be so impossibly _blue_. It amazed Lance a little bit, in a way. And the grass he lay in now, was as impossibly jade green, for all the blue in that sky.

“You can... really run...” He finally wheezed out softly as his breath came back, his lungs and chest still burning, his legs feeling like jelly. He focused on the blades of grass, each blade different... and long too, it had been over a month at the very least since anyone cut it, after all. He sat up when he saw something in it though, grinning wildly. An _ant_! He hadn't seen an ant in over a month! Lance had not realized he could even miss ants, and yet, this little ant had just caused a huge swell of joy in his heart. It was overwhelmingly wonderful that ants still existed, despite everything.

“Yeah well. I got beat up a lot when I was younger,” Keith mumbled, though he was giving Lance a curious look now. Probably the huge grin he still had plastered to his face. “What has you so happy?” Keith asked, his voice still a hushed whisper, still afraid to talk too loud, in case anything heard them.

“Dude, it's an ant!” Lance said, though as he said it, he realized it probably sounded completely ridiculous. Keith had an odd reaction too though, grinning hugely and moving closer to see too. Maybe it wasn't so strange then, how happy Lance felt to see something so fragile and small still existed.

“Seriously?!” Keith hissed in excitement, his eyes wide, his expression one of almost child-like happiness as he spotted the ant too. “You know, I haven't seen anything alive other than people since this all started. Hey, did you know that ants were farming about seventy million years ago?” Keith asked suddenly.

“Ah, no, I didn't,” Lance said, a bit startled by the random factoid, but that was something he apparently did a lot too. Hunk sometimes commented that he must know as much as Katie did, but Lance didn't think that was true. Maybe Keith was kind of like him then? Lance just didn't know anything really about ants.

“Yeah. Earliest fossils suggest they came into being as the species we know today around a hundred and thirty million years ago. Earliest evidence of farming comes in during the tertiary period, about seventy million years ago though. What's really cool is they developed fertilization protocols and learned to secret chemicals that inhibit mould growth even before we existed as a species and...” Keith trailed off, turning pink suddenly and pulling away. “We um, we shouldn't linger,” He said suddenly.

“Ah? Right, right. Hey ant friend, you keep anting okay?” Lance whispered to the ant, who was none the wiser about anything either of them had to say to it. Lance stood up and grabbed his pack, still breathing a bit harder than normal, but his lungs ached less now, and his legs felt ready to move once more. Keith lead the way, slowly this time as they walked, his hair still tied back and out of his face. Lance couldn't help but stare, whenever he thought Keith wasn't looking. Lance didn't really pay attention to where they were going, the street names not sinking in too well, but he did notice everything as they walked too.

He noticed the flowers, in full bloom in so many gardens, the way the lawns looked, more natural than usual. He noticed several bright yellow dandelions growing between cracks in the sidewalks, and the odd house with boarded up windows, though whether the occupants still remained there was unknowable. Lance noticed the sky, the cloud that looked just like a rabbit, and the one near it that looked just like a dragon, and he noticed the heat of the midday sun on his back and neck. He noticed the light sheen of sweat on Keith's forehead, and the way some of the strands of hair stuck to his neck and face, and how Keith's expression never faltered, and how Keith's eyes looked constantly for any sign of threat. Lance also noticed just the slightest movement from the corner of his eye and froze for a moment, causing Keith to pause and look at him, then follow his gaze.

Even more silently than they had been, they crept past that street where a hoard of at least fifty moved, away from them. Lance had no desire to attract their attention, though he did wonder where they were going, what they were following. Did the things migrate like birds? Or had something caught their attention? Or maybe they just felt a need to move, like he usually did. Finally Keith pointed to a building. An apartment building, with a buzz-in entry. Keith pressed one of the buttons tap, tap, hold, tap, and the door buzzed to signal it was opening. Lance wasted no time in hurrying in after Keith and closing the door behind them, and Keith seemed to relax more now.

“It's just our group in here, as far as we can tell,” Keith said as he walked towards the stairs. Electricity was still running and there was an elevator but Lance didn't want to risk that. If it stopped, there was no way to get out after all.

“Really? No one else in the building? How many unit's are in here?” Lance asked in surprise. A locked building like this seemed like a great spot to survive. Of course you had to still go and get supplies and stuff, but if the whole building pulled together, they would have managed.

“Well. Most people got sick and we um, some of them we didn't allow to get... past a certain level of sick. They didn't want to get that sick. Others I guess were out when everything went to shit. Anyways, it's only fifty units in here,” Keith shrugged. Lance had to suppress a shudder at the idea of killing people while they were still people but in a way he understood. He would rather die as himself too, than become one of those things out there, eating anything they found. They made their way up to the fifth floor, and down the hallway, to the fifth door on the left, which Keith knocked on the door. It was a series of specific knocks though, one slow, two fast, two slow, a pause, then two slow. When the door opened, it was another Japanese man who stood there, with a rather large scar across his nose, a shock of white hair and a very worried expression on his face.

“Keith! I told you not to go alone!” He said, though this new man looked relieved to see Keith apparently unharmed. Lance noticed his right arm was artificial, greyish, and sort of robotic looking. One of those new 3D printed models, he remembered seeing on the news.

“I didn't have a choice, you guys would have slowed me down too much. Anyways, I found someone, so I wasn't alone,” Keith said, his tone a little angry, which caused this new guy to frown a little bit, though the look of concern on his face was one that made Lance almost a bit jealous.

“Ah. You... oh. Hi, um, come on in,” White-hair said as Keith pushed his way past into the apartment, grumbling under his breath now. “I'm Takashi, but most people just call me Shiro.” He offered his artificial hand to shake and Lance hesitated a second before taking it and shaking hands. It felt oddly formal, considering their circumstances, but it was almost a welcome relief too.

“Hi, nice to meet you. I mean, it's nice to meet anyone these days, right~?” Lance joked. Even at the end of the world he still had a sense of humour. He had to, in a way, or he wasn't sure he could keep going. Shiro did grin a little at that as he let Lance inside the apartment.

“I guess that's true,” Shiro agreed but the sound of running came then, and from inside the apartment. Lance was so used to being on edge that his whole body stiffened up at the sound of running now, though when someone skidded to a halt, something else sprang to life inside him.

“ _Hunk_!”


	4. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance made it back, and Lance finds more than one surprise there waiting for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me a long time to update, and I am so sorry! I will try to update much more quickly in the future, but I tend to write what I have inspiration for. And I rewrote this chapter like three times until I settled on this version...

“I _knew_ it! I knew I knew that voice!” Hunk cheered, little tears forming in his eyes as he ran over, picked Lance up bodily in a bear hug and spun him around before setting him back down. Lance gave the bubbliest laugh Keith had heard in his life and Keith frowned as he sat down on the couch, tired out still. He grabbed his monitor again and rechecked his blood sugar while Lance and Hunk spoke to each other, but this did surprise him. 

Keith had hardly expected the cute guy in the seven eleven to know the guy he had found when this outbreak had started, panicked, scared, and trying to build a gun out of scraps. Hunk had seemed useful enough though to be building an almost functioning weapon out of basically nothing, so Keith had brought him back. It was when Katie, the younger girl that Keith and Takashi had found a couple of weeks later, skidded out with a grin too that Keith was more than a little bit surprised.

“Lance! You're alive! Lance is alive! I knew it! I told you Hunk, I told you Lance wouldn't die!” She said, throwing herself onto the growing hug pile while Keith watched from the couch quietly. Not only did Katie apparently know Hunk and Takashi, but she knew Lance too. Anyone alive at this point was probably useful though, so Keith knew he was probably not making a mistake with bringing Lance here. Plus Lance _was_ pretty cute.

“Katie! _You're_ alive! Do you guys have any idea how worried I was about you?” Lance was hugging them both, looking like he was about to cry. Takashi moved further inside and sighed as he sat beside Keith on the couch and watched Keith from the corner of his eye. He offered a small smile at Keith after a moment and patted his shoulder gently with his artificial arm. 

“I'm glad you're okay Keith. You should have told me you were nearly out though,” Takashi said gently and Keith pouted a little bit, watching him quietly for a moment, trying to gauge if Takashi was angry with him or not.

“Didn't want to worry you,” Keith muttered after a moment, looking to the floor now. Keith knew Takashi would have insisted upon going with him, and Keith knew Takashi would have a flash back when those things outside rushed him. And Keith could not bear it if he lost Takashi.

“Jesus Keith. You know _I'm_ the older brother, it's supposed to be _my_ job to protect _you_ ,” Takashi sighed softly, looking at the reunion scene still happening in the entry way. Keith was a little bit unnerved by the amount of noise they were making. It was a locked building, sure, but this place would only be safe for a little while. Eventually it might be too dangerous to stay in this area, and too difficult to scout for food or medicines. Keith tried not to think about what might happen to him if he ran out of insulin. That only made him depressed.

“Got your med's too,” Keith mumbled softly, poking the bag lightly with one foot. And food, though they might need to start scouting further for it, raiding their neighbours. That might be dangerous, Keith was almost sure there was one of those things inside at least a couple of these apartments. The water was a problem too. Katie had set up a way to safely extract clean water -they hoped- from other sources. The pipes still worked for now, but there was no telling if it was contaminated or not, and water bottles emptied fast when there was no rain for weeks at a time.

“I should probably start weaning off them, huh? Less danger if we have less to raid pharmacies for right?” Takashi sighed softly and picked up the bag to rifle through and see what Keith had picked up. Some of it was of no use to them, but Keith supposed they could always trade it off for anything they needed with other people.

“Maybe. I would, if I could,” Keith was worried really. He was unsure of how long insulin supplies would last in pharmacies and Katie and Hunk needed medications too. Lance might need some too. He had mentioned epipens but those were only good for a year right? Takashi patted Keith's shoulder though with a comforting smile and Keith sighed softly, leaning back and watching their now three guests come in properly, Hunk and Katie each taking one of Lance's hands to lead him inside properly.

“So how come you're alone anyways? I'd have thought you would stick with the whole family?” Katie asked as she sat down and went back to tinkering on one of the many inventions that now littered the floor of Takashi and Keith's apartment.

“Oh, that. Right,” Lance's face fell, and Keith was a little surprised by the difference. He was still drop dead gorgeous of course, there was probably no changing that, but Lance's smile was like sunshine and it's absence made a startling difference on his face. Keith guessed they must be dead. Almost everyone still alive had lost someone no doubt about that. Keith supposed he and Takashi were lucky. They had each other still, after all, like they always had.

“Lance did they...?” Katie pressed gently, looking worried but Lance shook his head and sighed.

“I don't know. We got separated a couple of weeks ago. We were sleeping in this abandoned house, and then all of a sudden there were just... dozens of them. I ran, and I guess I didn't really pay attention to _where_ I was running and the next thing I knew I was all alone. I went back a couple days later when I figured it was safe, but no one showed up, so I've been looking ever since,” Lance sighed and leaned back, supporting himself by moving his hands behind himself.

“Matt and Dad are missing too. They were out at the time of everything getting bad and I guess they probably holed up somewhere,” Katie said. She rubbed the bandages on her left arm with a soft frown.

“Well, uhh, the good news though, is Pidge, our Pidge, seems to be immune to the um, whatever it is!” Hunk said, hoping to distract Katie it seemed, though Keith was not entirely sure that would work so well for him.

“You are? Pidge, that is so cool! How do you know?” Lance asked, his face all lit up again and Keith felt his heart skip a beat at the sight. _Oh shit,_ he thought to himself. Lance was way too pretty to look at and Keith suddenly realized just how gay he really was. Even in the middle of an apocalypse.

“Oh. Yeah, um. Well, scratches and bites seem to be how it's transmitted, so my guess is that it's some kind of virus instead of a bacteria or fungus of some kind. It's ugly under a microscope, whatever category it falls under, but I digress. Kills the host, then reanimates them. It goes through a few stages though first. First you get a fever, and this happens _fast._ I'm talking a couple of hours, tops. You get the fever even if you're immune apparently. I also had a pretty bad asthma attack, but that might be the cardio that caused that,” She grinned a little bit as she explained.

“Yeah, yeah, oh hey! I grabbed a bunch of inhalers at the pharmacy too! I guess those were for you, come to think of it,” Lance grabbed the bag to rummage through it, apparently distracted by the thought that had hit him. He paused after a second though and looked at Katie again, with a sheepish smile, but she shook her head, apparently used to Lance becoming distracted easily.

“Yes, probably mine. Okay, as I was saying, a few hours later, around three from what I was able to chart -and since my sample size is currently two, we have no way to know for certain- if you're not immune, you move to stage two. Stage two is when your speech slurs, and you begin to lose some brain function, and your appetite vanishes, at least for a short time. Stage three you slip into a coma, another couple of hours later, and stage four is the initial death stage. The person dies. I'm not sure about brain activity, but the heart and lungs _definitely_ stop. Initial death phase is within approximately thirteen hours after exposure. If you're immune though, you get the fever, you sleep a lot, but you wake up periodically during that time, and there doesn't seem to be any brain damage either. You recover about two days after exposure, and lucky for me, I had someone to look after me. And someone to stop Keith from shooting me in the head.” She eyed Keith warily at that but he frowned.

“What?! I didn't know she'd get _better_ , I thought she'd try to eat us in her sleep!” Keith said, defending himself against the accusation. It was better safe than dead in his mind, after all, and letting someone in when they had been definitely bitten was not something he had been particularly keen on.

“I mean, I can't say he's _wrong_ there, but I'm glad Keith did not shoot you in the head. So, how'd it happen, is it bad?” Lance asked, eyeing the bandage on Katie's upper arm cautiously. Hunk frowned softly and gently put a hand on Katie's shoulder, as she stared at the floor in front of her.

“Mom got scratched. She um... I didn't know she would do that and she bit me and... I ran as fast as I could. Shiro and Keith found me and Shiro was in basic training with Matt so he said I should come with them,” She said. Lance's face fell a little at that, and he nodded quietly.

“I-I see. Oh. I uh, sorry Pidge. But, I'm sure your Dad and Matt are okay right? If _you're_ immune, maybe they are too, right?” Lance said, his expression difficult for Keith to figure out. He never was good with expressions though. Patterns of behaviour were more Keith's thing, though sometimes he could figure out tone of voice too.

“Yeah,” Katie smiled a little bit at that and nodded, wiping one eye. “I have been looking at my blood too, I managed to get some blood samples from the infected, and it's pretty interesting stuff. I think I can test the rest of us safely enough, to see if anyone else is immune, but I'm not sure what's causing the immunity either. Could be genetic, could be a fluke. Hell, it could be the steroids I breathe in every day, maybe asthmatics are all immune?” She shrugged.

“How did you get infected... you know what, I'm not really sure I wanna know,” Lance made a face. Disgusted maybe? That was Keith's best guess. He could also be nauseated or angry though, hard to tell.

“Keith did that actually, he cleans his sword once he gets back usually, so it was easy to get a sample off that. When I looked at my blood I found no trace of viruses either. Of course when I saw the infected blood, other than the blood cells being pretty well destroyed, I _did_ find the virus. I reintroduced a little into mine and it looks like I have antibodies for it now. Virus only lasted a couple of minutes, my white cells were all over it!” Katie was pretty excited about this, it sounded, and Keith did not really get the excitement, but he did get that Katie was important to surviving this somehow.

“Wait, so you're not gonna get the fever even if you get bit again? Whoa! Hey, wait, you could make like, a vaccine with your blood right?” Lance seemed to be following better than Keith was, but a vaccine against this virus was really a good sign.

“Yeah~! At least, that's the hope eventually anyways. Gotta find like, somewhere we can go to get to work on it all safely though. I think if we can get off the continent we might be able to get in touch with someone, assuming anyone is still alive out there. Hunk is helping me build something to get a signal out, see if it's just what's over here. If we're lucky, some parts of the world are still functioning pretty well normally. If that's the case, all we have to do is get out of dodge and we should be good to go,” Katie grinned at that.

“You are the smartest person I know Pidge. Like, hands down,” Lance grinned at Katie and she beamed at the compliment.

“Thanks~, I am pretty great, aren't I~? Anyways, like I was saying, if I can get your blood samples, I think I can determine if you guys are immune or not, or if you're at least a compatible blood type to me. If you are, we can give you guys some of _my_ blood, and see if the immunity will pass through to you. If it does, we at least have a vaccine for people with A+ blood types. And AB+ people too.”

“Oh, Hunk, you're AB+ right?” Lance asked, though it seemed like an odd thing to remember. Keith supposed he was hardly one to criticize, since he remembered all kinds of completely useless shit. Like the stuff he went and blurted about ants. And he knew so much about boats and trains it could make one's head spin. Takashi always told him it was just how his brain was wired. The psychologist told him he should try to be less obsessive about subjects that interested him and try to be 'normal'. Keith liked Takashi's approach better.

“I am, yeah, so at least Pidge can make me immune. Hopefully. We should test that one a slide first though, right? Just in case?” Hunk asked meekly. He might be resourceful when pushed, but Hunk was pretty well terrified of everything it seemed. Just as well though, Keith supposed, since now there was a lot to be afraid of. Becoming one of those mindless monsters in a hoard did not sit too well with Keith either, after all.

“Yeah. I'll start testing this all tomorrow, but we're gonna need a way to get your blood... Keith already said we're not allowed to use his lancet or his syringes since he doesn't wanna waste that many needles,” She rolled her eyes like Keith was being ridiculous and he scowled, anger flaring in his chest.

“In case you hadn't noticed? We're _in the middle of they apocalypse._ I can't just get an infinite supply of needles. And anyways, you only get like a drop of blood out! We'd have to change needs for each person, and I don't have enough right now to do that.” He snapped. Katie, Hunk, and even Lance glared at him for that, but when Katie opened her mouth it was Takashi who intervened.

“All right! That's enough, both of you. Keith, you don't have to get angry. Katie, Keith is quite right. He can't just get replacements that easily right now, and it's not fair of you to expect him to put himself in harms way for this either. We'll get the blood we need. It probably won't be too enjoyable, but we'll get it. We can work on this in the morning though, I'm sure Keith and Lance are both pretty tired out from the day they've had, and I'm sure Lance hasn't had a chance for a real sleep since this all started,” Takashi said. Keith huffed a little, annoyed that he had been told off, but Katie seemed to accept Takashi's statement too at least and did not press the issue.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, we WILL meet Coran and Allura... it just will take some time for them to turn up is all. But hopefully before chapter ten. Probably before then.


	5. WalMart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance go to find the supplies Katie needs to determine immunity, and find something very unexpected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a while in the making, woops! I hope it was worth the wait though (The chapter is a little longer too than my usual, so please forgive me!) More of Keith dealing with his gay feelings and being unable to read people. 
> 
> On a more serious note: If you are enjoying this please consider buying me a coffee, AKA something to eat this week as I have a full week until my next paycheck and with only 9 hours this week and last week... I won't be able to make ends meet for June at this rate. Due to AO3 rules, I cannot post a link here, but my tumblr is @seliphra and you can find the link there right above my commission information.

It is said that you can buy anything at a Walmart. Keith believed that, both when he was a child and now, as an adult. Before all of this began though he disliked going in, avoiding it whenever possible. Walmart had always felt like he had stepped through some sort of portal into another dimension, even when he was little and his mother would seat him in one of the fun carts with the cars that he could pretend to steer, or when he got older, too big for the little carts, and Takashi let him sit in the regular shopping carts and skateboarded around on it through the aisles, the both of them laughing as they did. No one had ever stopped them, and Keith had believed at the time that the employee's could not see them when he was in the cart at all. Now he understood it was more likely that they simply did not care, not being paid enough to bother stopping a teenager and a child running through the aisles, so long as they did not break anything or make a mess. They never had.

Now, with all of this hell around him, Keith found that he half hoped it really was some strange, alternate reality inside of a Walmart. That by stepping through the front doors and inside of the enormous brick building, they would leave behind whatever the hell this shit was and be greeted with a robotic smile and an offer to help by someone in a blue vest with a bright yellow button on it. This whole ordeal might be different too if it were Keith's brother here beside him, instead of Lance who kept repeating their list over and over, like some sort of mantra, under his breath.

“Needles, vials, blood testing kit. Needles, vials, blood testing kit. Needles, vials, blood testing kit. Needles, vial-”

“How many times are you going to recite that?” Keith snapped, interrupting Lance in the middle of his mantra. Lance shot Keith a glare for it, and he was pouting too which made Keith's heart flutter more than he would care to admit. How was it that Lance could be so beautiful and yet, so annoying at the same time? No one should be able to be like Lance was, and yet, here Lance was being undeniably gorgeous, and unbearably irritating, all at once. Or maybe Keith was just irritated by how Lance made him feel, and in such inopportune times. The middle of the apocalypse was no time for romance or crushes after all, they could not afford to be compromised emotionally with so much to deal with.

“So I will remember it. I won't remember if I don't repeat it a lot. I'm just kinda forgetful, okay?” Lance huffed softly, still glaring at Keith, though the pout seemed to ease back up into an expression Keith could not begin to comprehend. Keith rolled his eyes at Lance, but in all honesty the repetition of the list was something that calmed him a little bit too, when his nerves were already so high. He did not like this mission one little bit. Everything about this was horrifically dangerous in Keith's mind, and not at all worth the risk, but Katie needed blood testing kits and needles to see who in their group she could save and who might be shit out of luck on that one.

Keith still was not entirely sure _Lance_ was the best idea to bring on this mission though. He had only been in the group for two days, and in all honesty Keith had no idea how he had survived on his own for a full two weeks. Or before that, even if he did have a large group of family to help protect him. Keith was not sure Lance would get the result he wanted by looking either, what was the point in looking if it would probably turn out nothing? Lance's family, in Keith's opinion, was most likely already dead, and if they were still some how alive in this wasteland, there was probably no chance of Lance being able to find them when Keith considered the Biters trying to eat them, the growing scarcity of supplies, and the over all span with with humans could potentially travel in the span of a single day. 

Of course, if it were Shiro who was to go missing, Keith would look for him. Keith doubted that would happen of course, and certainly not while Keith was around to watch his back. Besides, Shiro was a fighter, a survivor, there was no way these things would ever be able to kill him. That was of course assuming that Shiro stopped having flashbacks every time one of the Biters came at him. Keith could protect him right now, he could fight and he could protect his brother. 

“Oh shit, how the hell are we supposed to get inside there? I mean the Shoppers was bad enough, this is just ridiculous dude!” Lance whined when they got their first look at the parking lot. It was not full, no. It looked like a parking lot on any other day, many cars parked in it, and handfuls of empty spaces, especially further away from the store. The cars however, were somewhat dusty now after a couple of months resting here in all types of weather. They looked a bit dusty, the sun reflecting on only some of the roof tops, and even from here many looked rusty near the wheel rims and edges of the doors. The cars might be a boon though, as what Lance was concerned about was obvious enough to Keith for once.

Between the cars and near the doors of the massive building milled the things. The majority of them were near the doors, as though something had attracted them there, though handfuls of them wandered further away, lost in between rows of cars, but all of them somewhat trapped thanks to the row of abandoned vehicles in the roadways. It was not the largest hoard Keith had seen by any means, but it was enough that it made him nervous about what may lay beyond, awaiting them inside the store itself. This was a terrible idea. Keith was worried that if they went into the mega-mart that was Walmart that neither of them would leave it alive and uninjured. Lance pulled out the binoculars and looked through them, frowning softly as he did. 

“I don't think we can get inside through the front doors. Looks like the doors are closed?” Lanced said. Considering the number of cars in the parking lot, this was unusual. It did not follow the pattern of normal, before all of this had started. With this many cars, normally the doors would have be open to let people inside the store. The bulk of the initial attacks had happened when people had been out and about, and Walmart was open seven days a week. Considering the cars, and the timing of most of the attacks -from what Keith remembered- the doors should be open, allowing the dead full access in and out of the store. Unless someone locked the doors afterwards?

“There has to be someone in there. Survivors maybe?” Lance suggested. His voice sounded strange, but Keith could not place it. It could be hopeful, happy, greedy, or hell, it might be sarcasm. Keith was terrible with detecting sarcasm. Sometimes with using it too. Going with the way Lance's eyes seemed to light up, the small smile tugging at his lips, and the almost eager bounce he suddenly had, Keith was guessing hope or happiness though.

“Or fresh ones that haven't been cooking in the sun for us. They'll be faster. Fresh means fast.” Keith reminded Lance. Keith felt his heart break when Lance's expression turned to a pout, suddenly losing the energy he had been filled with seconds before. How did this guy have so many emotions all at once? More importantly, why the fuck did Keith have such a bad crush on him already? This was completely unacceptable! Especially since this was the end of the world most likely, and Keith could not afford to have feelings like this right now!

“Yeah. Okay. Let's just try to find another way in. There's gotta be a storage or a delivery entrance around back or something, right?” Lance sighed. His voice was different again, so there was definitely a shift in his emotions, but Keith could not piece it together either. There were more important things to think about right now though, than trying to work out the enigma that was Lance's rapidly changing emotions. Keith certainly understood emotions, more or less, but he could never figure out what the other person was feeling. Why was often less difficult, but the actual emotion was.

“Yeah. Come on, we should circle around the long way just to be safe. There's a lot of 'em around this area, since it was a major roadway, but we should be able to find a spot to get around the bulk of them unnoticed.” At worst they could hide between cars that were stopped in the middle of the road. Some cars had broken windows, others seemed intact beyond the open gas tank doors and gas caps. No doubt all the tanks along here had been emptied well before it was too dangerous to stand around and siphon the gasoline out. Keith doubted any of the cars held anything worth their time either now, other than a bout of depression.

“There is no long way unless we go like five kilometres in that direction,” Lance grumbled, pointing to the right. Keith knew Lance was right about that too, and somehow that made it extra annoying that Keith was wrong.

“Okay. Fine. I draw the hoard and run that way, you sneak in?” Keith asked, more than a little bit annoyed now. He was pretty bad at plans, people told him, but they sounded fine to him.

“Don't be a dumb ass. You'd die dude. You might be way too angry and kind of annoying, but I need you alive as much as you need me alive. So let's duck between the cars. On this side there's enough. I say we try shuffling like they do until we get around back and hope they don't notice,” Lance said.  
  
“Hope they don't- they are going to notice that Lance! We don't smell like fucking rot and shit! They do! You got a better idea?” Keith asked, annoyed. Despite the argument, both kept their voices to a softened hush, afraid that too much noise would draw unwanted attention from the meandering dead of the Walmart parking lot.

“Yeah, you're right, you're right. Okay. How about this, we lure one if we can. Kill it, then put like... their guts around us. It's not pleasant, but it's better than nothing. You have those garbage bags for rain right? We'll use those and that should be enough to cover up our real smells,” Lance said. Keith opened his mouth to argue, but stopped and nodded.

“That. Actually is a better idea,” Keith said slowly and Lance smirked at him. Happy or amused? Or victorious. Either way, Keith was irritated that Lance came up with such a good idea. If they went backwards, towards their apartment building they might find one that was off on it's own or already dead. It was slow, a bit staggered as they moved, ducking to hide from them. Sound definitely attracted them more than smell, but smell had to have something to do with it. Hopefully sight was pointless, at any rate Keith suspected they no longer had the capacity to really understand what they might be looking at.

Keith tapped Lance on the shoulder and pointed to the park near by. It was, fortunately, mostly emptied of Biters, meaning luring just one and dismembering it would be a touch easier than if they tried it near the Walmart instead. They turned in, Keith on high alert, though Lance seemed to be too. Lance moved his head a lot, looking this way and that, every tiny movement catching his eye, though Keith supposed that was probably to their advantage right now.

Keith dragged Lance behind a tree quickly when he spotted one, shambling between trees. Lance pinned himself close to Keith, making his heart skip a beat, though he did his best to ignore Lance's closeness to him. He peered around the tree slowly, Lance apparently not bothering too.

The Biter still had a mess of brown, loosely curled hair and most of its skin. It faced away from them right now, and only took the odd step, head shifting if it heard the leaves rustling too much in the wind. Keith could see the skin was mottled grey now, though he suspected it was once pretty white, and patches were blistered or missing. The reason for things slow movement was easily found too, a large chunk missing from it's left leg, meaning it probably could not run, the blackened blood and flesh simply there. The foot seemed to drag, it probably no longer controlled the foot. A wound like that was probably from other Biters, likely the reason it turned.

Keith looked around for signs of others, seeing none in the immediate area and so gripped tight to his sword and slipped out towards the Biter, moving fast and quiet towards it. It turned as it heard him, though it only heard him when he was right behind it, and it barely made out a rasp of what Keith assumed was agitation as his sword ran through its head. It dropped, not moving, but Keith removed the head too, just to be really certain that it would not suddenly sit up and bite someone.

Lance hurried over to help him out, pulling the garbage bags out of the mostly empty backpack out. It held some food, water, insulin, testing strips, a glucose meter, and garbage bags with holes cut in them for arms and legs. Make shift rain jackets that Keith supposed were now make shift gore jackets. He went to work quickly, putting what he could on Lance and then himself until they were sufficiently rotten-smelling, though it did churn his stomach and Lance gagged a little.

They looked around first to find another one at Lance's suggestion, since one to test with was probably safer than a hundred or so to test with. Keith was admittedly terrified, and considering how pale and wide-eyed Lance was, he assumed Lance was scared too. Or angry. Or just sick from the smell.

“Remember, act like they do,” Keith whispered when they found two more, and by mimicking the shuffling and rasping noises, they moved closer. One of the Biters looked at them for a moment, rasping at them, or at least in their general direction and then meandered past them, apparently uninterested. That was a good sign. The second one with it ignored them entirely, so it seemed to work, though going through a crowd of them still terrified the shit out of Keith.

They made their way back slowly, transitioning between the shuffling movement and their usual walking, depending on if they thought one of the Biters might be too close to them, or if they were certain they were alone. The sun was shining though, and the garbage bags were hot and uncomfortable, and the heat made the smell much worse. No flies seemed to be around though, which was somehow more unsettling than having them since it seemed only bacteria wanted to eat the Biters. Keith wondered if all the birds simply left too, nothing seemed to live here any more, other than the and they had seen, but Keith somehow suspected it only came out because there were no Biters nearby it at the time. It was like even the insects were terrified of them.

“Let's make this quick, I am _dying_ in this stupid bag,” Lance mumbled to Keith, and Keith nodded once. They had to move slowly, make their movement past the car lines seem like they were Biters too, which was hard because it was mostly bumper to bumper with a few fender benders in between. Why did people have to be so panicked when this happened? If they had not panicked so many of them might still be alive.

As they reached the parking lot they slowly shuffled and rasped their way near the Biters. One bumped into Keith's shoulder and kept moving, though for one terrifying moment he had been absolutely certain that it was going to bite his throat out suddenly. The bulk of the hoard was near the front doors, which they avoided by going around the Walmart to the back. It was not stand-alone, it was attached to a line of other stores and restaurants in a mega-strip mall, but the stores all had to be entered from outside, there were no connecting hallways within. Probably good, as they were clearly meandering in and out of a few of those stores, some of which had all the glass broken.

Keith did notice that the Walmart had its doors boarded up, which was definitely unusual. Could Lance be right? Or were they all dead now inside the Walmart, waiting for any unsuspecting living to wander inside and be devoured? Either way, they shambled their way down to the side street behind the Walmart and then around to try and find some way in. There were only a few Biters back here, which was a relief, though they kept up the act until Keith was close enough to one of them to slice it's head off it's shoulders. The second biter was several meters off though, and thankfully did not seem to notice the sound or movement, facing away from them as it shambled off aimlessly.

“This way,” Keith whispered, moving faster towards the back doors. The first one they tried was locked and did not budge though, same with the second and third. Keith swore at the last one when Lance rolled his eyes and pulled something out of his pocket before kneeling at the door. Keith watched, fascinated as Lance began to pick the lock.

“How do you-” Keith began, as the lock clicked and Lance opened the door. It was lit inside, but totally silent too and Keith did not like the sound of silence.

“I uh, thought it might impress girls so I learned how to pick locks,” Lance said once the door closed behind them, his ears turning faintly red. Oh. So Lance liked girls after all? Keith really should have known better than to get a crush on a random dude during the apocalypse. His options were already limited as it was, but the chances of another guy who was _also_ into guys, and Keith _finding_ said guy were astronomical.

“Right.” Keith said after a moments delay before pushing past Lance to head down the hallway. He desperately wanted to remove the garbage bag of Biter rot and take a scalding hot shower but right now they would need to deal with it.

“What's your deal?” Lance grumbled, following after him down the hallways which lead out into the warehouse. They moved slowly here, but it looked empty aside from what were probably several hundred of boxes. Keith ignored the question for now, already knowing that answering would just make things weird between them, and things could not afford to be weird what with the ever-present danger of being eaten alive by monstrosities.

They made their way out slowly into the store proper and there was not a single sound to be heard. Somehow this made Walmart feel even more like another dimension. The aisles were all empty, the music was off, but the lights were still working other than one in the children's clothing aisle which had gone out it seemed.

“We should grab food while we're here too. And any medicine we can get too,” Keith said. He would rather get the insulin now, than be unable to when he needed it and run out. Lance merely nodded in agreement a scowl on his mouth. Definitely angry, annoyed or sad then. First they got what was on Katie's list, most of which was in the pharmacy anyways. A few missing drugs did catch Keith's attention too but for now he brushed it off. The insulin was untouched, that was what mattered to him.

Lance found a couple of backpacks, though Keith thought one would suffice and began stuffing it with canned food. Not much else was edible any more, even with the electricity still on. It had been a few months, so a lot of the quicker to spoil food had done just that. Pity. Keith kind of really missed milk lately.

“We've got everything, right? Let's go, this place is giving me the willies,” Lance said, glancing over his shoulder as he did. Keith was relieved to know Lance was as unsettled as he was by a silent Walmart.

“Yeah, come on, this way,” Keith said, heading up through the aisle again. As they reached the end of the aisle though there was something Keith had not expected. Two bows, each drawn and notched facing them. The two people who held them had hidden behind the shelves between aisles, where the aisle ended, so Lance and Keith both had been unable to see them. Keith and Lance both raised their hands. When the woman spoke, it was in a British accent.

“Neither of you move a muscle, or we shoot.”

 


	6. New Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance are held at bow point, but could these two strangers become allies? And more importantly, can they get the blood testing kits back to Katie?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyy y'all! How goes it? Been a while eh? Anyways, here is the new chapter (finally)! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it!

The first thing Lance noticed about these two, other than the bows of course, was that the young woman who had an arrow to his head was extremely beautiful. She had dark skin, and surprisingly white, curly hair, though Lance was not sure how it could be so white. Before this began Lance would assume she was bleaching it white, but with the apocalypse on, that was impossible to maintain. She would have roots, or something, and there were none. She had a wider-set nose, full lips, and her eyes were exceedingly blue -another surprising feature. When Lance looked really closely too, he thought he saw very dark freckles on her nose and cheeks. Lance only noticed this thanks to her closeness, of course, as the point of her arrow was almost touching his right eyeball.

The other though, the man holding a bow, was white, orange hair and an impressively large moustache, as orange as the hair on his head. A smattering of freckles covered all of his visible skin too, though Lance paid less attention to him. The girl was way cuter after all! Who knew there would be _two_ mega-hotties during the apocalypse?

“You know, I didn't think I would say this, but I'm glad it's the apocalypse baby, because it let me meet you~” Lance said, shooting a wink in her direction. Keith turned to gape at Lance, a look of disbelief and shock on his face as he did, but Lance ignored him for now. Keith was hot, but it was safer to flirt with girls. Lance did not know what Keith preferred in terms of people, or if he did at all, or if he was even okay with a guy flirting with him. Not to mention there was the question of tall, handsome Takashi that Keith was apparently living with, and Lance was not about to try sticking his nose in there. So, this gorgeous girl it was!

“I think they're alive Coran,” The stunning young woman said, looking wholly unimpressed with the line Lance had given her. She kept her bow up, still trained on Lance's eye, despite knowing they were not Biters.   
  
“Yes, but we don't know what their intentions are, or why they're here Allura, so it's best to keep the bows on them for now, my dear!” The man, apparently named Coran, did not look too impressed with Lance either. Lance noticed that while the young woman -Allura, apparently- spoke in a muddled British accent, the man named Coran had a very strong Australian accent.

“We're not after anything! I mean, we're after some things, but just blood type testing things!” Keith said, though Lance noticed his voice was a little off. Was that his defensive tone? Huh. Kinda cute. Then again Lance was sure Keith also stole insulin and some food, Lance certainly had.   
  
“And why exactly do you need to test blood types?” Allura asked, her tone still suspicious. Her eyes flickered over to Keith as she spoke, though her bow did not leave Lance, who was gradually becoming more nervous. She had held a full draw for this entire time now, ever since she told them not to move, which both were ignoring to some degree.

“Well. So we know our blood types,” Lance said, shrugging, “look can you point that somewhere else? It's making me kinda nervous. Since it might kill me.”

“Yes. That's the point in having it _pointed at your head_ , idiot.” Keith growled at him, and Lance frowned, scowling at Keith. Lance knew it was the point, that hardly made him feel any better though!

“Yeah, but like, what if she lets go by accident? I don't wanna die man! At least, not in a Walmart with some jerk who I barely know!” Lance snapped back. 

“I'm not a jerk!” Keith retorted, looking almost surprised that Lance thought that about him, and offended that Lance would say it out loud. 

“ _Both_ of you, _shut up_!” Allura said finally, causing both Lance and Keith to jump a little and return their attention to her. “I still need an answer. Why do you want to test your blood types in the middle of the apocalypse while people eating monstrosities roam about?”

“Oh. That. One of the people in our group is immune to the virus, she wants our blood types so she can transfuse us with her antibodies, but she can't really give us her blood if we're the wrong type,” Keith said flatly. Lance would not have been so blunt of forthcoming with that information, but it seemed that Keith was not much of a negotiator. At least, that was what Lance believed until both of the bows lowered and the pair exchanged a look of surprise. Maybe Keith was right to show their whole hand right off the bat?

“You've got a vaccine?” Allura asked, still looking surprised, but also quite happy. Oh, she was _way_ prettier when she was not three seconds away from shooting Lance in the head! Then again, Keith was way cuter when he was not pissed off too. Ahh, how to choose? 

“Not yet, but we're hoping to make one. I guess. How'd you get a _Walmart_ to be this empty?” Keith asked, looking around and rubbing his arms. Maybe this place was creeping Keith out too? Lance just hated how unnatural the whole place felt. Walmart's were fine, but this did not feel like a Walmart at all. 

“A lot of hard work. Shot a few of the things outside, while they were inside, locked and blocked the doors with warehouse boxes and wood that we found in the back. How did you get, er, you know what, never mind, I think I know the answer to that,” Coran said, nose wrinkling as he eyed the guts and blood the two had draped on top of the garbage bags they both wore. They really did smell bad, but it was kind of the point. 

“Look, we're in a locked building right now, and this place is gonna be a target for raiders eventually, so your defences aren't gonna hold forever. If you wanna live, you can come with us, but we're going. We won't bother you if you don't bother us though, we're not interesting in killing people over blood testing kits,” Keith said, looking fed up. Allura looked to Coran at that, while Lance questioned what the hell Keith was doing. Sure, Allura was cute, but they did not really know if she was safe to invite over, especially considering she had been holding an arrow to their heads just a moment ago. Well, Lance's head. He supposed Coran was the one holding an arrow to Keith's head.   
  
“I think it might be good Coran. I mean, our chances are better with more than just us. And if they have a vaccine we might be able to survive the monstrosities too,” She said, though she did look nervous too. 

“Unless they're with Zarkon. Or like him,” Coran said, frowning at both Keith and Lance. 

“Uh, if it helps, we have _no_ idea who that is,” Lance said with a polite smile. Coran glanced at him and shook his head, before returning his attention to Allura.

“I don't trust them Allura. Could be bad news, and we might not survive it next time,” Coran said, still looking suspicious. Obviously someone named Zarkon had done _something_ to them, and Lance was dying to ask what, but it would probably get him shot. Lance had never been great at the impulse control thing, but right now he managed to bite his tongue.

“Coran, I know we might not, but I do not suspect they are the same as Zarkon either. And if they really do have a vaccine, it could save _our_ lives too,” Allura said. She was frowning and Lance suspected she was winning this so far, but Coran still looked uncertain.

“Maybe, but that's assuming they don't want us so they can use us as bait or something, to escape the hoard outside,” Coran was still glaring at both Keith and Lance suspiciously. 

“Coran. I do not think they could have made it in here if they needed a scapegoat for the hoard outside. I am going to go with them, you can stay here if you like though. I don't trust them, but we both know he's right. Raiders are going to come, they will not be the last ones looking for supplies, and the next people to come along may not be good people either. These two may turn out to be perfectly respectable people too, and our best chance at leaving safely.” Allura said. Lance grinned at that. 

“Well then, it's settled. Allura, you stick near me, Keith, you take the old guy,” Lance said. All three of them, Coran, Allura, and Keith, wore the most unimpressed look Lance had gotten today. Coran looked more angry than the other two though, likely from being called old. 

“I'll come too. But only to make sure that that guy doesn't try anything,” Coran said, nodding at Lance, and Keith actually smirked again at the comment. Lance pouted at that, he was not a bad guy!

“Yeah. Can't say I blame you there dude,” Keith said as he walked past Lance to find both Allura and Coran a backpack too. They were coming, they could carry more supplies with them. If all four of them had two, one on the front and the back, they would be slower, but considering the things outside were fooled by a bad smell and an awkward shuffle, it might work out in their advantage instead. 

“Right, well then, I'm grabbing what we had in our stash then. I'll meet you all at the pharmacy,” Coran said, heading off for now. Lance supposed they would need a garbage bag too. It would help them if Allura and Coran smelled and looked unappetizing too, after all. Better shot of everyone getting away. 

“Okay then princess, so you and me huh-hey, where are you going?!” Lance whined as Allura gave him another unimpressed glare before following after Keith. She picked out two backpacks and then went around filling it. Some clothing, food, medicines, and teeny, tiny batteries too. 

“We don't need batteries that size,” Keith grumbled when she grabbed them off the shelf, but Allura scowled a little. 

“Yes, actually, we do. Coran's hearing aid's take these, and if his battery dies he can't hear the mobs. He could hear one monstrosity if it were alone, but he can't hear the hoards, and he could hear us if we spoke really low or really high, but otherwise not so much. And since he can't really lip read and none of _you_ speak sign language -I assume- it's probably better if he can hear things and communicate too. And if you have a problem with that, then I suggest you-”

“No! No problems! We're apparently all needing some uh, different stuff right Keith? Nope, no one has a problem with hearing loss! Unless you guys have problems with a lot of other things...” Lance said, cutting her off, yes, but a loud argument in an empty and silent Walmart that was surrounded by flesh eating monsters seemed like a really bad idea to Lance. She did glare at him, all the same, when Lance cut her off, but he hardly cared. 

“Good.” She said, though Lance strongly suspected she had a few more things she wanted to say to the both of them for this.   
  
“Okay. So grab whatever else you need then, and uh, Keith and I can meet you at the pharmacy too with Coran,” Lance said, grabbing Keith's wrist and pulling him in that direction. Keith did not fight him, but Lance suspected it was more because he was grumpy than anything else. Keith seemed to be a very grumpy person, just generally speaking. Naturally he was a little surprised by the fact that Keith's ears and cheeks were a bit red when they reached the pharmacy. 

Keith sat in silence by the entry to it while Lance went in and raided a few more inhalers just in case. Coran stopped in for a moment, setting the bag with their personal belongings down before grabbing an empty one to fill too. 

Once they were both back, everyone managed to get the backpacks on, one in the front and one in the back, then Keith and Lance helped Allura and Coran into a garbage bag. Allura also tied her hair up, to keep it getting any blood in it, but more importantly, to keep a Biter from grabbing and pulling it. Those things did not know the meaning of the word 'gentle' any more, and Lance suspected getting ones hair caught by one of them would be deadly. 

“Alright, gut us up then, as it were,” Allura said, though she looked nearly ready to vomit at the thought of having Biter guts smeared and hanging off of her. 

“As you wish, princess,” Lance winked again, and she rolled her eyes. Yeah, she probably kind of hated it, but it was the apocalypse, options were pretty limited. Lance gingerly picked some small intestine he had hung on his bag on her while Keith took some of the rot on his bag and smeared it on Coran awkwardly.   
  
“We may need to find another one,” Keith warned. It was hot out there, and they smelled horrendous, and Lance did not want to hunt down a Biter in this temperature again. They did their best, and all four of them still stank pretty sufficiently in Lance's opinion, but Keith still looked nervous about it. 

“We'll be fine. Come on, let's get back so we can clean this shit up. You need to eat soon anyways, right? You're supposed to snack every few hours or something, right?” Lance asked and Keith cast a wary look at Coran and Allura before he nodded, pouting as he did. Both Allura and Coran looked mildly curious at that, but they did not ask any questions either. There were more important things to worry about, like getting out of here and to the safety of the apartment. Which was holding a growing number of people lately. 

Out they went, the same way they came in, leaving it unlocked this time. A way back in, Coran said as they left, just in case they needed more supplies from here. Not advisable to bother with this one, too many Biters in the way, and this business of getting guts all over yourself was both disgusting and kind of dangerous. 

“Okay, so sound like them and shuffle like them. If we smell bad enough they should let us pass without too much trouble. Just don't panic or run, and we shouldn't attract too much attention,” Keith said softly. They all got their shuffles down before rounding the corner. Lance could not help but watch the Biters as they moved. 

One, a man with no lips, his teeth a permanent, horrific snarl was watching them with lifeless ice-white eyes. Their eyes did not really change colour, no, but they certainly lost something too, there was something missing in them. This one had some hair left, but much of it had fallen out, and his nose had rotted away too, leaving his face alien looking. When they began passing through the cars, snarl-man -as Lance had decided to call him- began to follow them, along with a few others who were nearby. 

The lines of cars seemed to stall them, but Lance felt his pulse quickening all the same as others began to pay attention to them too. They could not shuffle convincingly enough through the cars, but it was snarl-man that unsettled Lance the most. He gave an unearthly wheezing snarl sound as he got stuck between cars, and Lance almost sighed in relief when he seemingly lost interest in them, opting to meander between the cars now instead. 

Only a couple of Biters were on this side, and they were looking the other way as their group shuffled and faked the rasping noises of the Biters and made their way far too slowly down the hill. Lance hated being outside more than anything since this began, it was the absolute worst. Keith was the first to drop his Biter shuffle and start walking normally again, but only when they were down the hill, and Lance felt some relief as a small cloud passed over the sun. Not much relief, it was a single tiny wisp of a cloud and they were walking a ways yet to the apartment building they needed. 

No one really spoke though, but Allura gripped her bow a lot tighter too as they made their way back to safety slowly. Shuffling when they saw Biters, and walking normally when they did not. They seemed to be gathering together more or less though, and the thought of why that might be unsettled Lance deeply. 

 


	7. Blood Testing and Immunizing Infections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They test their blood and determine one other person is immune to the virus, or so they hope. If they're wrong it could cost all their lives, but if their right it might save them all too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got to hang out at a cafe with my girlfriend and write this chapter while she wrote her own, it was lovely! (But it was also very hot today!) 
> 
> Please comment with anything if you like it, and if you like my work, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi which you can find on my tumblr page (I am Seliphra on tumblr as well!) and also consider checking out my commissions!

“You found more people. Is this going to be a pattern Keith? You go out and come back with double the number of people you left with? Because we _may_ have to break in to other apartments at this rate to get enough beds to sleep in,” Takashi teased as they filed inside the apartment. Their two bedroom had never been meant to house more than just Takashi and Keith, but here they were with seven people all of a sudden, crammed into two bedrooms, a living room, and a very small kitchen with not enough food. 

“Better not be. It's not a good idea to divide up out numbers like that,” Keith muttered, not realizing Takashi was teasing him until Hunk gave him an odd look over his comment. Keith pouted and looked down at the ground to avoid looking at anyone's faces and thereby their eyes, before sitting down to go through what they had brought back with them. Easier this way since he would not need to try and guess their emotions if he did not see their faces. 

“Okay, so we definitely found the kits, and we found some food and bottled water too, since we won't have running water forever right? And we got food, more medicine since the pharmacy was right there and all, and of course a _gorgeous_ babe!” Lance winked at Allura when he said that and she rolled her eyes and sat down closer to Keith to avoid Lance being too close to her. 

“Alright, good. So uh, I'm Takashi by the way, but most people call me Shiro, and you've met Keith and Lance. And this is Hunk, and Katie,” Takashi said, motioning to the others to Coran and Allura. 

“My name is Coran. And this is my niece, Allura. I'm surprised so many of you are here in one group,” Coran said, looking around. A small space, certainly, but as long as they were relatively quiet they would be relatively safe here. Keith hoped, at any rate.

“Well, we kinda came one and two at a time. Shiro and Keith actually lived here before this all started, and me and Hunk got found by them earlier on. I was pretty sick but Hunk didn't let Keith kill me and neither did Shiro, which I'm glad for anyways,” Katie grinned and Keith scowled a little. Was she ever going to let that go?! Keith was just doing his due diligence! 

“You were? Yes, er, Keith mentioned one of you was immune to the virus and trying to make a vaccine?” Allura asked politely. 

“Yeah, that's me. I got bitten, right here, and seems I'm immune to the virus that's doing this since I'm still, y'know, here. But I can't pass my immunity on without testing everyones blood, since I'm not a universal donor. I have to make sure you guys are safe to give my blood to, and if you're not then... well, I can't do anything for you. Okay, so these are good enough to tell me the RH factor too. I mean in theory we're all positive, but there's always a chance you're not and if you put an RH positive blood into an RH negative person well.... it isn't good.” 

“Right, okay. So we take some blood out with all these, no one can share needles, but we will need to reuse our needles. No more than absolutely necessary, though we shouldn't do once even really. So we're going to write names on them, Takashi, were are the sharpies?” Keith asked as he pulled out the needles. Katie was breaking in to the test kits with a gleeful look as Takashi moved to grab one from the kitchen. 

“I-I don't need to test right? Since I already know my blood type?” Hunk asked, looking terrified. Hunk was apparently afraid of everything, Keith wondered if they should just compile a list of things that did _not_ frighten Hunk instead. 

“Right, we know you're AB+, but you're still getting a needle since I need to dose you with my blood and then confirm you're immune to the virus,” Katie said. Keith wrote names on every needle as he unpacked them carefully. _Lance, Keith, Takashi, Allura, Coran, Katie, Hunk_. Then he grabbed the rubber band he had gotten from the pharmacy too while Lance was off doing other things.   
  
“Here, you first Lance,” Keith said, reaching for his arm. 

“Why me?!” Lance protested, looking nervous and Keith scowled softly. What was it with people and fearing needles? Keith took one twice a day since he was eight and he administered them himself! 

“Fine, tie it around me, I'll take my own out.” Keith grumbled, holding his arm out. 

“No way! Just... here, just do it fast, okay?” Lance whined, looking upset. Unless he just had to pee? Keith could not really tell. Keith huffed an audible sigh before tying the band around Lance's arm to make his vein pop out properly. Keith was sure to wait until it was good while Katie wrote their names on different blood testing kits to ensure they did not get mixed up. Lance turned away while Keith drew his blood, and Keith did notice Lance squeezed his eye's shut and whined when the needle went into his arm.   
  
“You know, it hurts less if you relax your arm,” Keith said as he pulled the plunger, drawing Lance's blood into the glass compartment of the needle. Not a lot, just to test it both with the virus, and the kit. If Lance already carried the same immunity as Katie, there was no point in giving him her blood. 

“Yeah, right. You'd _like_ me to relax huh?!” Lance whimpered. 

“What does that mean?” Keith asked, genuinely confused and looking to Takashi for his answer. 

“Don't worry about it Keith. Lance is just being childish about this,” Takashi said, and Lance pouted at Takashi for that. 

“Hey!” He whined as Keith placed one of the cotton balls he'd grabbed to Lance's arm and pulled the needle out.   
  
“You're done. Hold this or you get a massive bruise,” Keith said. He spoke from experience there. He forgot to hold it when he was young once, and his whole forearm bruised from it. He had not made that mistake since. 

“Is that a threat?!” Lance asked, looking either angry or hungry. Possibly he still just needed to pee though. 

“ _Lance._ Keith is right. That's what happens when you don't apply pressure to a spot after you get an IV taken out or blood drawn.” Takashi said with a sigh. He seemed to be frustrated, but Keith was better with Takashi's emotions. They were siblings, but Keith suspected it was more to do with being used to Takashi's patterns for emotions. Lance pouted at Keith next before offering only one word. 

“Oh,” and then Lance held the cotton ball in place silently while Keith handed the blood off to Katie. 

Next was Allura, then Takashi, then Coran. Takashi had to do Keith, he had learned how during his time in the military. Katie was quick and the test showed fast too. It was only when they were all finished processing though that Katie read them aloud. 

“Okay, good news. Lance, you're A+, Coran is AB+, Allura, you're B+, Shiro is O+ and Keith is O-. So, at the very least I can make Lance, Coran, and Hunk immune, but the rest of you... unless one of you is also immune, which we'll know in a day or so, are going to have to be more careful about bites and scratches from them,” Katie said as she got to work with the blood from the Biters. 

She had extra now, thanks to the guts they brought back on the garbage bags, left outside and inside a separate bag to prevent them from contaminating anything inside the apartment by accident. A little bit added to each vial she injected their blood in to, a shake, and set aside, labelled too while Keith had drawn blood from everyone. Now Hunk needed some of his drawn too, which made him whimper and whine too. Why were they all such babies about it? It was just a little blood being drawn! 

“Okay. Now we sit and wait. If you're not immune, my prediction is that your blood will -oh, look!” It was much faster than Keith expected it to be. Lance's marked vial was rapidly turning necrotic black. It was even turning sludgy as the cells were infected by the virus. 

“Oh shit. So uh, I guess I'm not immune huh?” Lance asked softly.   
  
“No, but that's why you get a transfer from me. I have the antibodies, so we test you again in about five days to see if my immunity spread to you,” Katie said with a nod. The others were acting up now too. All the vials were soon black except for one.   
  
“Keith it... looks like you're immune to the virus, so you might be able to help with everyone else. I can't reinject this, since it's got the dead blood and that might cause clots, but we should get you scratched by a Biter at least. It sucks, but you'll survive the event, and if I make Lance, Coran, and Hunk immune, it means we can use your blood on Allura, and Shiro,” She said. Keith did not like that thought in the slightest, but saving Shiro at least was worth it to him. 

“So we gotta find a biter and ask it all nice to just scratch me, instead of take a huge chunk out of me or maybe rip my guts out,” Keith grumbled and leaned back in the chair. He was not at all liking the thought of intentionally infecting himself. And anyways, what if the test was wrong and he wasn't immune? 

“Look, I know it's not ideal, but if we kill one and use it's hand to scratch you, it could work right?” Takashi pointed out. Keith locked eyes with him, frowning silently. Takashi was good with emotions, he could understand Keith with just this, even if Keith could not have done the same. Takashi was one of the only people Keith was ever comfortable making eye contact with though. 

“Fine. I'll do it. But only if my blood stays red in that vial for two days. If not, forget it.” Keith said. 

“Deal!” Katie agreed as she drew some of her own blood for Lance, Hunk, and Coran.

* * *

 

“Congratulations! You three are immune!” Katie cheered as she retested Coran, Hunk, and Lance's blood. Their blood now stayed as red as Keith's inside their vials, despite the drop of their own infected blood being introduced. In fact, the dead blood was destroyed too, and she had even retested under the microscope to make sure it was doing what it was meant to. Keith was less happy though. Sure, it was good more of their group was immune, but Keith's blood had done what he insisted. It stayed red for two days, still in there now as clear and normal as it needed to be. 

“Right, so it's you two coming with me for a Biter to scratch me then, right?” Keith sighed, looking to Lance and Coran. Sure, Hunk was immune to them as well, but he was too afraid to fight any and Keith knew better than to expect him too. All the same though, this was so unfair! 

“You can do this Keith,” Takashi said gently, one hand being placed on Keith's shoulder. Keith knew he could, the problem was he did not _want_ to do this. 

“It's not so bad Keith. I mean you get pretty intense dreams, and your whole body hurts, but it's not so bad,” Katie promised him. That sounded pretty bad to him though. 

“Right. Let's get it over with, let's go now.” Keith was itching to go out anyways. At the very least to leave the apartment. No one had been out since they found Allura and Coran, who were settling in quite comfortably. Allura and Katie shared Keith's room, while he shared with Takashi. Keith now apparently shared Takashi's room with Lance and Hunk, and Takashi and Coran stayed on the couches in the living room. Lance stood up when Keith did, though Coran was a bit more hesitant with this it seemed. 

“I uh, my hearing isn't great boys, I'm not sure I'm right for the job either,” Coran said, looking either concerned or hungry. More people meant Keith was just perpetually confused by everyone's emotions instead. 

“Don't worry Coran. You got your hearing aids, you got us, we won't let' em get you!” Lance grinned, giving Coran a thumbs up, which made him smile a little in return. Keith did not understand any of this. 

“Maybe I could go instead? I mean I-”

“No way Takashi. You're not immune and you're going to have a panic attack if one rushes at you. You are not getting bit on my watch,” Keith said stubbornly, glaring at his brother who simply sighed. 

“Yeah. Okay, you're right Keith.” Keith was not entirely sure if Takashi gave up because Keith was right or because he just did not want to fight in front of everyone else, but Keith did not really care either way. Takashi would be safe here, that was what mattered to him. 

“Come on, then boys, let's go,” Coran said gently, casting a look at Takashi, though Keith could not even begin to interpret that one. 

They left once they had their weapons, silent as they left the building, though Keith was all ears in case one was inside the building. No, but it seemed one was just outside the doors, and Keith watched it through the glass of the lobby first. It seemed to notice them after about a minute, snarling and repeatedly smacking on to the glass with a dull ' _THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.'_ Keith hated the sound. 

“Let it in here and we can kill it in the lobby?” Lance suggested but Keith shook his head. 

“You want the lobby to be infectious and stink like rot forever? No way, we kill it outside,” Keith said. Lance grumbled something about Keith being too picky under his breath, but Keith was already opening the door, his sword drawn. He could technically do this himself, why bother taking them? 

One thrust of his sword was all it took for the Biter to drop, though there were a couple others who saw the commotion and snarled turning towards them and beginning to move. 

“Keith, hurry up!” Lance said, his voice going to a higher pitch as Keith took the dead Biter's hand, and using one of the biters nails, drew a line enough to draw blood across his arm. He felt sick at the thought, but he was inside again just as the other two smacked into the window with shrieks only the dead could produce. 

“There. Done. I'm done...” Keith sighed, though he did not want to be. His heart was pounding, scared of this not working. What if it killed him anyways? What if Katie was wrong and he was not immune and just infected himself for nothing? What if he turned and hurt Takashi?

“Right. Let's get you upstairs then, shall we?” Coran said gently. 

“We gotta kill those two first. Shit, how is this gonna affect my glucose anyways? I can't eat if I'm half dead from the infection, right?” Keith was on the border of a full panic now, but Lance put one hand on his shoulder surprisingly gently. 

“We'll give you sugar in water. Shiro knows your doses. We're going to take care of you Keith, we won't let you die okay?” Lance's voice was so calm, and his expression so gentle that Keith felt himself calming down already. Takashi could do that, but Keith had not expected Lance to be able to as well. It helped that Lance was extremely good looking, and Keith's poor gay heart could not handle this. Not that he would act on it. 

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. We should still kill those two though, so they don't break the glass or anything,” Keith pointed out. 

“Yeah. Good point,” Lance agreed, drawing his own sword. 

 


	8. The Fever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group of rag-tag survivors learn more about one another while Keith fights the infection off to save others in the group

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only got three comments on the last chapter. So um, if you read this please consider commenting, because that is how I know people are reading this at all, and it's pretty disheartening when something you've worked hard on gets almost nothing, so if you're reading and enjoying this, PLEASE consider leaving a comment! It can literally just be 'I like this', I promise you, I will still cherish that! 
> 
> Please also consider checking out my tumblr seliphra for my Ko-Fi and Commissions information!

“Is he really okay?” Lance asked, his tone one of worry as he watched Keith. It had only been six hours since the scratch, but Keith had quickly gone from his normal self to delirious with fever and hallucinating. Those lasted only an hour or so, then he simply lost consciousness while the fever burned in him. Now and again Keith would cry out, as though he were having a nightmare or in pain, and scare everyone. Shiro would not leave his side, and kept trying to keep him cool.

“I think so. So far his symptoms follow what mine did, but we won't know for sure for another twenty-four hours,” Katie sighed, and Shiro looked almost like he was in pain with needing to wait so long to find out. Right now Keith was quiet enough, but he was so pale it scared Lance a little, and the veins nearest the scratch site had turned black under his skin.

“How do you know you were showing _all_ these symptoms though? I mean you were unconscious for most of it,” Lance reminded, curling up on the couch so he could hug his legs.  
  
“I know. Keith, Shiro and Hunk paid attention though, and I mean, I _think_ I must have looked like he does now, right?” Katie asked, looking to Hunk who nodded.

“Yeah. Same deal, black veins, white as a sheet, you cried less in your sleep though,” Hunk said with a small, weak smile at them both.

“I guess. It's still kinda scary though,” Lance said with a soft sigh, not sure what else to do. Keith was being kept in the living room with a rotating watch, it had been decided. If he turned in the middle of the night, none of them would survive it. Most of them still were not immune, and even then, being immune did little to help if enough were eating you alive or bit through an artery or pulled out your intestines.

“He's going to be okay,” Shiro said stubbornly, wiping some of the sweat on Keith's forehead away with a damp cloth. Lance suspected Shiro had no idea what to do either, and was too worried to do nothing at all.

 

* * *

 

About three hours later they began the watches. Lance's was going to be from three am to six am, and he slept fitfully between when he finally drifted off, to when Hunk gently shook him away, yawning.

“Your turn Lance,” He mumbled, before settling under the blankets he was using and passing out with inhuman speed. Well, normal speed apparently, Lance could just never make his mind turn off. Lance rubbed his eyes and sat up, looking over at Keith. He was still pale, still sweating, and still feverish to the touch, but he had not turned yet anyways. Lance moved to the chair beside Keith quietly to inspect him.

Keith's hand looked a little worse in some ways, but better in others. His veins were still abnormally obvious, but they were not black quite as far as they had been any more, the colour returning more the closer to the injury you went. The injury itself though was large and covered in puss, though it seemed that the others were carefully caring for that too. Lance got some of the water labelled 'Wound rinsing' and gently did that now, over a bowl, before patting his hand dry with the paper towel that was there.   
  
Keith had bad bags under his eyes, and his normally darker skin was so white he matched Katie. Keith wasn't as dark as say, Lance or Hunk, or Allura. But he was not white, and right now he was so pale it frightened Lance. Keith shifted in his sleep just then and Lance jumped, whimpering softly when he did, but with no further movement he seemed okay. Lance sighed softly before moving Keith's hair off his forehead and out of his eyes again.

Oh. Soft. Keith's hair was softer than Lance expected it to be, but then he did not really know why he expected anything different. Keith's hair was also damp with sweat though, and Lance sighed softly. They had all been shown before bed how best to test Keith's blood glucose levels while he could not, and what to do based on the readings. There was a handy chart on when to do so as well, though right now Lance was good.

“You better get better mullet.” Lance said softly, poking his cheek gently. Keith likely could not hear him, but that was alright.

* * *

 

“You sleep late, don't you?” Allura teased as Lance rubbed his eyes. He glared at the clock they had set up out here, and huffed at the analog face of it. Lance could not read analog clocks, even when he wasn't exhausted, stressed, and fighting for daily survival, how was he supposed to read one right upon waking up? Lance had been checking the oven clock, a digital display, to check his shift times last night.

“Well _excuuuuse_ me princess. I missed three hours looking after the sicko over there,” Lance grumbled as he sat up. “What time is it anyways?”

“The clock is right there,” Allura pointed to the analog one again and Lance frowned softly. No help at all.

“It's eleven seventeen,” Katie said simply, knowing Lance struggled to make out what they said at the best of times. Lance nodded his thanks to her and then went to Keith where Shiro had resumed his watch over him.

“Any change?” Lance asked. Keith was still alive, so that was good. And his hand looked _almost_ normal now, aside from needing regular rinses with water and a pat dry.

“He's not crying out as much now. And his fever went up by a degree, but that's a good thing. If he was turning, his temperature would be dropping now, and he would have more black in his veins. That's almost gone now though,” Shiro pointed to Keith's injured arm with his artificial one. Lance did wonder how that happened, but he did not wish to be rude either.

“So he's getting better then?” Lance asked, hopeful. Sure, he barely knew Keith, but the more of them who did not die, the better, and as odd as he was, Lance sort-of liked him. He was certainly good looking -not that Lance would admit it- and he was a good fighter to boot. Their chances were better with Keith, and Lance needed the best chance he could get if he was going to find his family again.

“Probably, yes. It seems as much anyways, but he won't wake up for a couple of days even if he is,” Katie said. Shiro was gently moving Keith up though to make him drink some broth. Coran helped him, just a little at a time, so Keith would not choke on it.

“Wouldn't it be better not to feed him?” Hunk asked worriedly, watching as Coran and Shiro carefully fed Keith.

“Normally, maybe, but Keith is diabetic. If he doesn't eat properly it could do a _lot_ of damage to him. He's at risk for losing toes especially if his insulin and blood sugars aren't right, and I am giving him shots that help him use his fat stores, but it's not something he can do the same way we can. It isn't a lot, but making a special broth for him can at least... help. I hope. I mean, if he goes into diabetic shock, he's in as much danger of death as he would be if he weren't immune to the virus,” Shiro explained.

“Finding insulin right now must be quite the chore,” Allura said, looking worried, but like she understood the dilemma of looking for medications in the post-apocalyptic world. Lance did see her taking medication the other day though.

“Yeah. He's raided pharmacies a few times, he just takes it all even if it isn't his usual brand name. As long as it's something he can dose out properly or will give him the right dose, and is the same as what he normally uses, under a different brand name, he should be okay. For-for a while anyways. If this keeps up, there's no telling what could happen,” Shiro said.

“We'll help however we can. Katie has her inhaler, Shiro, it seems you're on medication as well, and I-I have my own to take too of course, so we'll all do our best. Er, though we should probably all learn about each others er, disabilities then yes?” Allura asked, though she looked almost frightened by her own suggestion.

“Allura, I don't think-” Coran began, but then sighed and shook his head, “No, you're right. If Keith is diabetic, and Katie is on an inhaler, and Shiro has an artificial arm, I suppose it means you lot _won't_ leave us behind to die then, yes?”

“Wait, is that what your old group did?” Lance asked, looking horrified by the idea.

“Yes. Zarkon. He and my father were friends, but at some point we were surrounded and it looked quite bad for us. Zarkon tried to sacrifice some of us for the escape of the rest. My-my father was killed in that attack, but Coran and I survived. He chose Coran and I because... well, Coran has hearing loss. He can manage with his hearing aids, but without them mid-range sounds are very difficult for him to hear. He can't hear a hoard sneaking up on us, so he was deemed useless by Zarkon. And as for myself I er, I'm narcoleptic. My medication helps, but it isn't perfect, and it can only help for as long as I can take it. Once supplies run out it will be much worse, and he said it was a 'waste of resources' to continue trying to keep me medicated. He left us to die, used us as distractions so he could escape with the others we were with,” Allura explained. She curled up as she spoke, her eyes watering a little bit.

“Allura. I'm so sorry, that sound horrible. We-we won't do anything like that. I mean I'm asthmatic and Hunk has angina, Lance we have no idea, but he does bad in school and can never stop moving. Or shut up, especially about dinosaurs and world war two,” Katie smirked at him and Lance pouted.

“You quiet. I'm just a hyper person okay? And I get distracted, and I like to fidget a lot! And there's nothing wrong with knowing a bunch about dinosaurs, who are _way_ cooler than humans anyways! I could read about them for hours,” Lance whined. Shiro seemed to perk up though.

“Lance, have you been tested for anything?” He asked, and Lance initially thought that Shiro might be teasing him too, until he saw Shiro's expression. Genuine curiosity. Almost concern?

“Well. No, I mean, I'm the youngest of four, so it's just not enough attention or something,” Lance said, pouting a little bit. His mother was always on his case about his grades though, and Lance spent a lot of time grounded. He tested really well, but he never did his homework really.

“Maybe not. I mean when Keith was younger he was being tested for Attention Deficit, it's possible you just have ADHD. I uh, did a lot of reading on it for Keith, and he's autistic, but the signs can be pretty similar sometimes, so they test for both usually. But easily distracted, fidgeting, do you have difficulty with numbers and math? Or focus on things you enjoy so well that you forget to do things like eat and sleep?” Shiro asked.

“Actually, that _would_ make a lot of sense for you buddy, I've seen you when you read something you like, you're so into it a bomb could go off and you wouldn't notice it. And you struggle with math and doing normally easy stuff like reading analog clocks. And the time you had to do that presentation, the article took you like a week to read because it was boring to you,” Hunk said, looking thoughtfully at Lance. Lance felt strangely like a weight was lifted off his chest.

“I-I guess? Maybe? I mean there's no way to know for sure though, right? With the whole world the way it is,” Lance said. But it made him feel a little bit better about himself.

“So is Keith so grumpy all the time because he's autistic then, or what?” Katie asked, though she suddenly looked embarressed. “Sorry, that was uh, kinda rude huh?”

“Yeah a little, but I won't tell him you asked. Yeah, I have a feeling it is. A lot of his teachers and therapists will tell him he can't or should not do certain things, but he doesn't know what to do as a result and it comes out as anger instead since he doesn't know what else to do instead. If we'd figured it out sooner, it might be different now, but he wasn't diagnosed until he was fourteen. He didn't really present the way most autistic boys do,” Shiro shrugged a shoulder.

“Okay. Well, cool I guess. I guess I'm ADHD then. And Shiro is missing an arm and Keith is diabetic so I guess that's everyone, right?”

“Ah. Uh, well I'm also dealing with PTSD, but yes. I guess that's what we know right?” Shiro asked. “That's what my meds are for by the way. Anxiety and depression. But I'm coming off mine, since the less we need to find, the better. This one is just a pain to come off of, so I have to be slow with it,” Shiro said.

“Well. We'll help you with that too,” Allura said with a small smile.

* * *

 It was only a few more days before Keith finally woke up, late at night and during Lance's shift. He was confused, and still too warm, but he was no longer hallucinating, and Lance was happy to help Keith eat and drink and check his blood-glucose levels. Lance recapped a little about what they had done and talked about the past four days while Keith recovered. Keith was hard to read, but he seemed more relieved than anything that no one seemed to dislike his disabilities. Keith seemed more relieved to learn every member of their group -their newer members included- had one too.

 


	9. Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Keith wakes up, food is running low again. Rather than risking the outdoors, they conclude they should search within the building, but are they really as alone as they think they are?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It snowed yesterday and it's all melting today. October in Canada amirite?
> 
> Anyways, if you like this please comment, comments are how I know people are reading this! And as always please check out my tumblr (Seliphra) for my Ko-Fi or my commissions to help keep me writing!

When Keith first opened his eyes he felt like he was being crushed under a building. His throat was dry, and his mouth felt like cotton, and he felt shaky as could be, but after a minute or so, his eyes focused and he saw Lance sitting beside him in the dark room. Keith was on the couch, in the living room, and he could hear soft snoring from a spot on the ground where Hunk was asleep.

“Keith? Hey Keith! How are you feeling?” Lance asked, his voice a whisper and Keith opened his mouth and tried to ask for water, but only a raspy croak left him. Apparently it sounded like the Biters, since Lance flinched a little before nodding.

“Water, you need water. Here,” Lance said, getting up and filling up a cup from the kitchen sink. He came back and set the cup down on the table before moving beside Keith and placing an arm around his back, gently lifting Keith upright so he was sitting. Keith felt like the apartment was spinning, but he knew it was just his head, and Lance helped him slowly sip the water.

“Better?” Lance asked softly, checking Keith's temperature now, and Keith nodded, but he was unsure he could speak really just yet.

“Yes,” He rasped and smiled weakly, leaning back against the couch. He wanted to check his blood sugar more than anything else, he had no idea how long he was out, but the others had been careful enough. Takashi knew how to give him all of his shots after all, and it seemed he was at least being carefully fed broths. An IV would have been ideal but that would mean raiding a hospital and Keith was reckless, yes, but he was not crazy.

“Your blood was tested about a half hour ago, but we can check it again if you want?” Lance said gently. Keith shook his head no.

“What were the readings?” Keith asked and Lance picked up a notebook. Everything from the past few days was written down carefully. When they gave him food and his shots, and his readings were taken and what the numbers were. There was a little guide at the front of the book where it told them what the numbers meant and what to do if the numbers were out of range. Most of them involved 'get Takashi'.

“Oh. You guys were really good,” He mumbled in surprise. Keith was admittedly impressed, but grateful. Their careful attention to detail like this had kept him alive while he was ill.

“Well, yeah. No one wanted you dead you know. I mean, if you died we're all pretty screwed right?” Lance grinned and winked at Keith, making his heart flutter a little bit. Was that a joke? It had to be, if people said something mean but smiled and winked it was sarcasm. Maybe. His expression must have betrayed him though because Lance's face dropped a little.

“Oh, right, sorry. You probably don't do so good with sarcasm right? I don't mean you're only good for keeping _us_ alive. We would all be very upset if you died, and not just because your useful, but because we like you around,” Lance said.  
“Wait, how do you know I'm not- Takashi told you while I was sick, right?” Keith frowned a little. People always acted unsure around him if they learned about it, like he was a landmine or something and Keith hated it. 

“Yeah he did. But I guess I probably have ADHD or something, and Pidge has been telling me all about it. And I can use sarcasm but I can't always spot it either, and I guess we've got cousin disorders then right?” Lance asked, though he looked upset. Or he had to pee, but probably the first one. Keith knew what it was to learn something like this about yourself. 

“Yeah, guess so. Maybe that's why you keep spotting them before I do? You see movement, you look because you get distracted, but right now it'll help a lot for you to do that,” He said with a yawn, and sipped the water. 

“You think so? I-I like that maybe. I always got told I just didn't care, and I _do_ care, it's just really hard to pay attention if it's boring!” Lance said. 

“It is easier to learn about it if I like it,” Keith agreed. “So no one like. Hates me? Or wants to leave me behind?” He asked, eyes flickering over to Coran who was dozing out here too right now. 

“No. Coran and Allura got left behind apparently. They were going to be a live-diversion for others to get away because um. I guess they're like us too. Allura has narcolepsy but I don't really know much about that, and Coran has hearing loss apparently. He can use an aide but if those get lost or stop working he can't replace them now and he won't hear a horde coming. He can apparently hear some ranges of sound, but not the middle stuff. Cookie-bite hearing loss, he called it. And you already know Hunk has angina and Pidge has asthma.” 

“How come you call her Pidge?” Keith asked suddenly. He had been meaning to ask for ages now, but it never seemed to come up. 

“Huh? Oh. Her nickname from her parents and her brother. They call her a pigeon, and we just sort of... adapted it and shrank it more into Pidge,” Lance said. “You must be hungry! I'll get food. What do you want?” He asked. 

“Anything. Bread is a good idea right now, actually,” Keith did not want to risk overdoing it right when he had woken up after about three days after all. 

 

* * *

 

 

Keith eventually dozed off again and woke up in the morning with the others. Takashi cried a couple of tears but insisted he was fine, and Katie got to work drawing his blood to give to the others who were not immune to the virus. Takashi stayed beside Keith for a long time, refusing to budge and he kept hugging Keith even though Keith was fine. Keith did not like hugs, but he knew Takashi would not hug Keith if he did not need the hug himself so Keith allowed it. 

“Okay. In a few days time we'll all be immune now, but we should not let that be a reason to relax. They can still tear us to pieces, and they will if given half a chance. They still want to eat us and we still smell like a meal to them, which means we still need to be careful. And there's the problem of other people too. Not everyone is going to still act like everyone else alive is a person, so we need to be careful with other survivors too,” Katie said, but Keith frowned softly. 

“I'm not killing people.” He said stubbornly. The Biters he had no choice. It was self defence, but they still used to be people, and he tried very hard not to forget that part. Staying alive was important, but not if it meant losing what made _him_ a human too. 

“I agree with Keith. We can't kill other people, even if they're dangerous to us unless we have absolutely no other options,” Takashi said, rubbing his prosthetic without thinking. Takashi did that a lot if he was stressed out. Keith could read Takashi, his pattern was easy. Takashi was nervous, and probably thinking about what happened before. 

“We should kill the Biters though, right?” Hunk asked and Keith scowled more. He knew they had no choice, but killing them put a sour taste in his mouth too. 

“Only when necessary. They might not be who they used to be, but they were people once, and we can't afford to ignore that either. Where we can we bury them,” Takashi said. Keith nodded. It was not usually possible, but if it was, they could do that. 

“Right. You have a point there. Desecration is like, a big bad thing too, right? Mama will kill me if she finds out, so better not to,” Lance said with a weak grin. Keith hoped Lance's family was alive. Lance was nice, and he liked Lance. Keith did not want Lance to hurt, so he hoped Lance's family was alright. And if they were, Keith at least could make them immune, since he was a universal donor. 

“We're low on food, we're going to have to go out looking for some,” Allura said, changing their topic. It looked to Keith like everyone agreed not to kill even the Biters unless necessary. To treat their bodies with respect. 

“I'll go look for some with Lance,” Keith said, but Takashi gripped his shoulder, a frown on his face. Angry? Or worried. Both possibly. 

“Keith, absolutely not. You've only just woken up, you're too weak to fight if it comes to that right now. You'd be killed, and I am _not_ going to loose you too,” Takashi said, hit tone very firm. 

“I'm fine! And anyways, they're all moving towards the centre of the city! They're moving out of the suburbs and into the core, so it should be fine! I can always do the guts thing too and-”

“I said _no_ Keith. You can _not_ go out there right now. It's not safe, and its my job to protect you. That's final. I'll go out with Coran and Lance, we'll find food.” Keith scowled at his brother, but Takashi was apparently not going to listen. He was right anyways, Keith felt shaky in his legs and arms as it was. No way he could fight right now, and just because they were going downtown did not mean that there were none left in this area. 

“You can't go either. You might get a flashback,” Keith's voice was softer now, and he knew he probably sounded hurt or something, considering the way Takashi touched his shoulder. 

“I know but-” 

“I'll go. Coran, Lance and I can find the food,” Allura said, but Coran shook his head. 

“Allura, your father made me promise not to let you come to harm. If you become panicked you might set off your ataxia,” Coran said. 

“Someone has to get food,” Lance sighed softly. 

“We have enough for another couple of days. We ration it out, maybe check the other apartments here first?” Katie suggested.   
  
“We could do that,” Keith said. Then he could help, and minimize the risk to Takashi. Takashi sighed softly and then slowly nodded. 

“Okay. Okay, we'll all go as a group then and check the other apartments. We listen first, and then knock. If we hear a Biter, we leave that apartment alone and mark it with um... paint or something. I have Sharpies, we can write a big 'X' on the door okay?” Takashi said. 

“Deal,” Lance said with a grin, and once they had a backpack each they went. Keith was definitely not up to speed, climbing the stairs was a real pain, but no one wanted to risk the elevator. There was still electricity and water, but they could not know how long either of those would last. When the water went, they would be forced to find a way to collect it or die, or else leave the city in search of it. 

They paused a few times, not only for Keith, but Katie, who after a while was at risk of an asthma attack. They eventually made it to the top floor, which was a relief to all of them and once they had all caught their breath they started. The first door there was no noise and the door was unlocked. No one was home either. Hunk made a mistake, opening the fridge first, before slamming it shut and gagging. 

“Don't look in the refrigerators. It's all spoiled,” He whined weakly and Lance chuckled at that, rubbing his friends back gently. 

“Don't worry buddy. The canned food will be good,” Lance teased. Keith rolled his eyes as Katie went looking in the other rooms.

“Water! I found a flat of water bottles!” Katie called happily, as Keith emptied out the cupboards. Spaghetti, pasta sauce, tomato's, pickles, olives, beans, more beans, condensed milk... there was a lot in here apparently. 

“I found some Tylenol,” Lance called. They should take that too, just in case. They got lucky in this apartment. The second one when they knocked there was a rasping howl and a bang against the door that caused everyone to jump back in surprise. Takashi wrote a large 'X' on the door and they moved down to the next door. That one was locked, but Lance picked the lock easily enough. 

“So _that's_ how you got in to the Walmart,” Allura said, and Lance smirked. Keith guessed she was impressed by Lance being able to pick locks, and Lance did mention that was the point of having the skill. 

“Well of course princess, you gotta have a useful skill like lock picking you know,” Lance said and Keith scowled, feeling his jealousy flare up again. If only Lance liked guys too. Why did his gay ass have to survive the apocalypse only to get a crush on _Lance_? 

“Useful for what, breaking and entering?” Takashi asked, and Keith recognized the expression as disappointment. Lance turned red. 

“No, but it's useful now, right?” Lance asked as they went in. There was less in this one. Some potato chips, spices, and a handful of cans of beans, tomato's, and soda. The next apartment was empty. No furniture even, so no food. The next one was quiet when knocked on, and in they went. 

“I've got the kitchen, Keith, you and Lance check the other rooms, Allura, Coran, help me with the food here,” Takashi said. Keith nodded and went down the hallway. Nothing in the bathroom other then some toothpaste and soap -that would be nice to have. Pads too, Keith grabbed them too, just in case. Allura would need those right? Though Lance seemed embarrassed by them.   
  
“What? It's not like-” Keith paused and frowned, shoving past Lance and looking down the halls. Nothing, just the noises from the kitchen where the others packed up food. “Never mind. Come on, one of these might be a spare room, or someone has a hidden stash somewhere. Or something.” They could find something useful anyways. The smaller bedroom had nothing, but when Keith opened the master bedroom door he froze. 

The figure had long, brown hair, and was looking out the window -or appeared to be. It had one hand up against the window pane, and was facing the city centre, visible from up here. It did not seem to notice them, at least at first, and Keith swallowed, looking at the hands. He noticed the mottling, the rot of a Biter, and was about to quietly close the door when Lance spoke, and much too loudly. 

“Dude! What is-oh shit, oh shit!” She turned slowly at Lance's voice and looked at them. Then she bared her teeth in a snarl as she saw them, shrieked, and lunged for them both. Keith slammed the door shut and moved backwards with Lance, the two of them practically tripping over each other as she thumped against the door.

“Go! Out! There's one in here!” Keith yelled as he and Lance ran out the door. No sense being silent when it was shrieking and howling and slamming on the door to try and come after them. Hunk and Katie stood guard outside the apartment and the other three grabbed what they had and moved as the door to the master bedroom began to break, the Biter's shrieks and the sound of the door breaking echoing loudly in the otherwise silent apartment. 

They closed the main door to that apartment, and headed for the stairwell, hopefully she would miss them. If she was out of the apartment next time they came up here, they could deal with her then, but they had no weapons right now. 

They made it two floors before Keith sat down on the stairwell landing, his legs shaking too badly from weakness left over from the virus to move. Katie needed to puff her inhaler too, breathing too hard, coughing, and a light wheeze was appearing in her breathing pattern too. 

“You two okay?” Takashi asked gently, and Keith nodded. 

“I need a minute,” Keith said, and Katie gave a thumbs up as she leaned on the wall, her breathing slowly returning to normal once again. 

“We have enough food for now at least. We should get back to our apartment, we'll deal with her next time,” Takashi said, eyeing the door above them, but they could not hear her now, and they were probably safe. 

 


End file.
